Persona 4: Seeing the Unseen
by americancheeze
Summary: A complete retelling of Persona 4, with a new MC who has a unique power that may prove to be the strongest of all, or to be the death of him: Understanding. Can a lonely girl from a small town defeat her inner turmoil and save him from his own? MCxYukiko
1. Introduction

_Author's Note: Welcome to the new version of my popular fic: Persona 4: See the Unseen. This introductory chapter is isolated to give the first chapter a smoother flow and to enhance the isolation the Velvet Room represents at this point. Next chapter is the arrival in Japan, a little background, and the arrival in Inaba. This fic is heavily based in the tales told by music, and every chapter will have a theme song, which I recommend you listen to and read the lyrics to. The overall theme song of the fic is "Layla" by Eric Clapton, which will be the theme of every chapter that proves vital to the central theme (which is slightly different than the game. This Intro chapter is one of the few chapters that doesn't have a theme, or rather the theme is actually silence._

Introduction:

I awoke in a place I had not fallen asleep in, a place with such loneliness and longing that it hung in the air like a fog, a fog of grimmest isolation. Silence so deep it was almost audible permeated that heavy solitary air and I looked around desperately for any hit of life in the room. My eyes fell upon a lone woman in the far corner of the room, sitting on a stage atop a piano that had no pianist. Her eyes were closed and her face frozen in an expression filled with hidden emotions. She was neither beautiful nor ugly, and though older than me it was impossible to guess by how much. Neutral is the word that came to mind when attempting to describe her. Indeed she was neutral in every way. The mask of stoic resolve she bore, concealed an easy to discern mess of longing. The woman was lonely and lost, a musician with nothing to play and all alone in her quest to express a missing song. Across the room from her, sitting far from the sullen stage in a well-pressed suit was a long-nosed man holding a small drink. Frozen in place, they seemed unaware of their surroundings. They barely seemed alive, more like fresh corpses with the slimmest chance of resuscitation.

Standing, I was immediately startled by motion from the stage. The woman was suddenly awake, eyes totally alert but uncaring. Soon after, the old man took a sip of his drink with a smile. His face still boasted an expression I couldn't read for certain and his piercing eyes glared at me with total clarity and full knowledge. It was as if neither had ever been dormant.

The man spoke in a voice as neutral as his companions, a mix between sage and lunatic, "Welcome to the Velvet Room. My name is Igor and I am delighted to make your acquaintance. The young lady you see at the piano is Margaret. She is a resident here, like myself."

I nodded, trying to analyze the two strange people, "My name's Bryan Neir. Where am I? Last thing I remember I was dozing on a 12-hour flight to Japan."

Margaret glanced over, "Charmed, I'm sure."

Igor motioned towards a chair, offering me a seat as he continued, "This, as I said, is the Velvet Room, a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It's been a while since we've had a guest."

"Yes, I can see that." I said, slowly walking across the large purple ball room and over to Igor's table, cautiously taking a seat. Surely, I had to be dreaming, but it didn't feel like one. I didn't feel asleep, nor did I feel awake. I felt like I was somewhere, but couldn't get my bearings. It felt like the place was the only place in the universe. Whoever Igor was, my instincts told me his words were fact and I always trust my instincts.

The long-nosed man looked at me long and hard, letting me process all the information before speaking again, "This is a place only those bound by a contract may enter. It seems such a fate awaits you in the near future. The nature of this contract shall not be the conventional kind. No, the contract you will enter shall be one of gravest importance. Your fate is uncertain, broken into pieces, and in fulfilling your pact you will reassemble it. If you fail, your future will remain destroyed."

"Go on."

"You have a unique ability and to save yourself you must hone it. I can help you do this. The only price I ask for this assistance if that you fulfill your contract and accept responsibility for the choices that you make and have already made. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand."

"We will attend to the details another time. For now, you must take the first steps towards that future." The room started going dark as he uttered those last words, "Farewell. I look forward to seeing you again."


	2. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: The theme for this chapter is "Perspectives" by Kutless, a song about putting your troubles in perspective, because everyone has problems and even if you think you're alone, somebody understands. It also talks about how a different point of view might make you a completely different person. I thought it was fitting. Note that though the chapter shares the tile, this won't be common and the chapter is named this simply due to the large number of perspectives (at least one new one per typed page), ironically little of which are Bryan's._

Chapter One: Perspectives

"Welcome to America, Mr. Souji." a warm but condescending face, belonging to one of the teachers at the school he was going to attend, greeted Souji Seta at the international airport in Memphis, Tennessee. He'd never been abroad before, but he'd seen his share of exchange students, and that was the look they always got from ill-informed adults. He sighed as he realized that there were narrow-minded people everywhere in the world.

"Thank you. I'm glad to be here." He lied. It really didn't matter to him where he was. His parent's work ensured he never stayed in one placed more than once.

"I understand your parents have come to the United States for work. How fortunate that you made it through the exams for an exchange program." that fake smiled was getting on Seta's nerves.

His response was a simple nod. He didn't bother looking at the woman's face of remembering her. Every place was the same after all, even in the United States.

She laughed suddenly, "Great, we get rid of one quiet one only to get another."

"I heard that, Mrs. Thompson." A large teen, slightly older than Seta approached with a bag, he was almost six feet tall by Seta's guess, with a shaven head, short beard, and glasses. If he was the one trading places with Seta, he would certainly stand out in Japan.

The teacher, apparently Mrs. Thompson, turned sand gave the teen a different kind of fake smile, then turned back to Seta, "Oh, Mr. Seta, this is Bryan Neir, the exchange student headed for Japan. I'm glad you came over early so the two of you could meet."

The large man offered a handshake, which Souji accepted. Bryan then addressed Seta in pretty good, but over-pronounced Japanese, the kind straight from a textbook, "Nice to meet you. I hear your parents make you move around a lot. My dad was in the military when I was young, so I can understand that, I also had to move when my folks divorced."

Seta noted two things immediately. For one, this guy didn't seem the scholarly type, so they had something in common. Second, he found himself both liking and hating him at the same time, an odd sensation to say the least. Something in Bryan's eyes just seemed to pierce into Seta, as if the guy could see everything about him. When their hands met, a strange sensation passed over him, a strange sensation of failure and hope at the same time.

"Sorry to hear about your folks." Seta lied, he really didn't care that much since he had long ago decided emotional attachments were something he wasn't allowed, "My parents work so much they might as well be divorced."

The guy shrugged, "It happens."

Mrs. Thompson broke into the exchange, "You should hurry Mr. Neir or you'll miss your flight, you can't put everything off forever."

Bryan frowned and nodded, waving farewell to Seta and heading off to a nearby boarding gate without a word. Seta's curiosity had been peaked, so he asked his questions without hesitation as the teacher lead him out of the building, "Big guy, doesn't seem the studious type though. What's his story?"

The teacher shook her head and grinned, "To be honest I have no idea, he only speaks to a couple people, all outcasts. You know, the kind of troubled youths that he'd fit in well with. You're half-right though, he isn't the type to study. I had him in my class last year and he never did any of his assignments. The faculty calls him the 'cruise control kid' because he manages to pass without changing that speed."

"How could he coast through like that, or qualify for this exchange program. I had to work my butt off."

The teacher looked really amused, "He's a weird one. Never pays any attention, yet never gets less than a 80% on a test."

"So he's a genius?"

"I wouldn't say that, but he would be if he tried harder." something apparently occurred to the teacher, and her grin becomes a frown, "He's a very lonely person I think. He's got so much promise yet never used any of it. Everyone was drawn to him because of his talent, but he never tried to get any friends."

"Well, here's his chance to start fresh in a new place. It's good someone nominated him." Seta could feel sympathy for the guy. A lot of the time he didn't want to bother with the world around him either. Sometimes things just felt heavy, "Maybe he just needed this chance. Once he finds a goal to aim for he'll turn around I'm sure."

The teacher looked at him with a genuine smile this time, "You're pretty mature for your age, Mr. Souji."

* * *

Meanwhile in Japan, **a lone girl sits at her desk in the den of her family's home, looking over some letters from a pen pal she'd started correspondence with a year before, something her grandfather had insisted upon. He'd claimed it would do her good to confide in someone, and if she didn't feel comfortable with anyone she knew, the logical conclusion would be to get to know someone from another country, someone she would likely never meet. So she'd signed up, requesting someone specifically from a far off country, in a part of that country that she'd never have to visit. **

**To be honest, her grandfather had been right. Confiding in someone made her daily troubles seem lighter, though her pen pal was only as open as he had to be, trying his hardest to shift any topic about him to whatever was bothering her. She'd been hesitant at first because of this, after all how could she trust someone who wouldn't trust her. However she soon learned that she couldn't hide anything from the man. He'd reply with words that cut through any lies she tried to tell. In fact she'd initially tried to hide her gender from him so he wouldn't get lofty ideas and make advances she wasn't looking for. It proved useless. It wasn't long before the two pen pals discovered each others' talents for observation, ****Bryan seeing right through her deception and she quickly deduced he came from a broken household. Another thing she figured out was he wasn't the type to talk openly about himself and probably never would be, though he was more the adequate in his chosen role as confidant. **

**However, his last letter was his most confusing yet. He'd passed an exam to qualify for an exchange program to Japan, scoring the highest marks even. She hadn't even known he was taking any such exam. She couldn't discern his intentions, but he would be in Tokyo, the city she lived in, for an hour before heading to a small town called Inaba. He mentioned it in passing, but didn't say anything about meeting. He did give his e-mail so she could contact him during the change in address. Did he expect her to make the move to set up a meeting? Was he testing her?**

Moments of deep thought later she found herself staring at herself in a tall mirror. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to ever meet him. After all, they had only become friends because she thought there was no chance of them meeting. She could always hide from him, it wasn't like he'd set anything up or knew what she looked like. What if he came to her house though? Could she fool him into thinking she wasn't her and that the person he sought wasn't home? She looked at herself in disgust, deciding it best that they never meet.

"You look troubled, M**agomusume. Is something the matter?" her grandfather suddenly entered, his stern but loving voice bringing her out of her thoughts.**

**"Oh it's nothing, grandfather." she resisted the urge to hug him and simply sent a smile his way, "I didn't know you were back from your trip to England. When did you get back?"**

**"A short time ago. I brought you something I got on a brief hiatus in Paris." He produced a box that he'd had hidden behind him...a dress box.**

**"Grandfather, you know I hate dresses. They are hardly practical in this day and age."**

**"Could you humor your favorite grampy at least this once? I haven't seen you dressed up since you were six."**

**She turned and looked at herself long and hard in the mirror, "Maybe later. How was your business? Everything turned out okay I presume?"  
"Of course, who do you think you are talking about my dear Magomusume?" there was a pause, "Ah, so Mr. Neir will be passing through Tokyo?"**

**The girl, startled beyond words, turned around quickly, seeing that in the short time she had her back turned, the old man had found the letter and read it, "Grandfather! You read my letter?"**

**"I apologize, but is this what had you so worried? Do you think he means to pursue you?"**

**"Not likely, he made no attempt to set up a meeting."**

**The old man simply smiled and put the letter down. As usual, Shirogane Naoto had no idea what was going on in her dear grandfather's head.**

* * *

_The next day and in another part of Japan..._

"Miku-san, did you finish tiding room 12 for the new guest?" Mrs. Amagi, proprietor of the Amagi Inn seemed even more frazzled than usual, the toils of preparing for the upcoming busy season and the exchange student that would be arriving later that day were clearly weighing heavy on the woman.

Tenroe Miku, head of the cleaning staff at the inn, nodded and put on a warn smile for her boss, one far different than the mechanical one she was trained to give guests, "Yes, Amagi-sama, the young man will be quite comfortable there."

"What about his uniform? If he's going to be working here he has to look presentable."

"Yukiko-chan is picking it up as we speak. The usual shop promised the usual quality."

Mrs. Amagi let out a sigh of relief, but was still clearly concerned, "Hopefully he's a good worker. We've had some rowdy guests from the states before.  
"True, but most of those were the college types, people tend to get a bit nuts at that age. I just hope the uniform doesn't make him look too much like a tourist."

The owner chuckled elegantly, but something suddenly came up, so Mrs. Amagi flashed that motherly smile of hers and got back to organizing things and helping out with various tasks. Miku went back to sweeping, wondering what her new charge would be like. Tall or short? Skinny or wide? He had to be smart, but would he be a trouble maker? Would he be arrogant? She thought back to her departed husband, an American man she'd met in her younger days working at the military base near Okinawa. He'd been tall and muscular, handsome even though she'd constantly berate him for being a bit arrogant. Memories of their rocky start still brought a smile to her face. Even when they started dating they spent more time debating than holding hands. The memories brought as much sadness as they brought happiness, and she couldn't help but take the picture of him out of the folds of her kimono.

"Thinking of Eric-sama again, Tenroe-senpai?" Mia, one of Miku's juniors at the local sewing club and at the inn, had snuck up behind her when she was deep in thought.

Miku was understandably startled, "Oh! Mia-san, you startled me!"

The younger woman's face lit up with a grin then quickly frowned, "Sorry. So, are you feeling okay? Taking on a foreign trainee and all must be hard for you. After all, if..." Mia didn't have the heart to finish the sentence.

"You can talk about it, I'm okay. You were going to say if Jiro had come to term he'd be around the same age, weren't you?" Miku sighed, "He would be, but I've moved on from that, made my peace with it. I don't want to let pain destroy me after all."

"That's good. You're so wise for your age."

Miku had to laugh at that, "I'm over 40, I'd hardly consider that young my dear."

Across town, Yukiko Amagi, daughter of the inn's owners, knelt at an altar in the small town's shopping district. Offering up several prayers, she put in a respectable amount of her weekly allowance. It was in this state of prayer that he longtime friend Chie stumbled across her.

"Yukiko? So you're here again. You come here at least once a week to pray."

The beautiful young girl whipped around at the sound of her friend's voice and the swirl of Yukiko's long silky hair reminded Chie of the difference between them. Yukiko was slender and the perfect height for her age, dainty yet not frail, symmetrical, with smooth skin that many boys would faint at the mere touch of. Chie was a bit short for her own liking and came of as really butch, with a tight muscular frame lacking in the common feminine assets, at least in her own eyes. Chie cared for her friend a lot, but moments like that swishing turn and Yukiko looking so good in that kimono made her feel jealous.

Yukiko forced a smile and greeted her friend, "Oh I was just offering a prayer for my dead relatives and for a bit of good fortune."

Like you need any, Chie accidentally thought before stopping herself, "Oh that's right. Your family's taking in an exchange student form the United States. Do you think he'll be handsome?"

Yukiko blushed, "Oh, I don't know. I just hope I get along with him. I'd hate to have to live with someone I couldn't stand for a whole year."

"Oh, you could manage. After all, you'd have the whole inn to avoid him in. Besides, if he's a guy he's bound to like you."

"I-I don't know what you mean. I've never even been asked out before."

Chie was always dumbfounded when she said that. Was she really that clueless? Suddenly she spotted the package that Yukiko was carrying, "What's that? I gift for the new stud in town? Already looking to sink your claws in him huh?" Chie teased.

Yukiko got outrageously flustered as usual, "Of course not! It's his work uniform for his job at the inn! You always tease me like that, you know I'm not boy crazy."

Chie went up to the altar and put in some change and offered up a mock prayer, "Of course not. That's why I have to pray for you to have some initiative!"

"Chie!" Yukiko groaned.

* * *

"Hey look at this guy! Stumblin' off the train like he just woke up from a binge." Thun Jagi, expert at all things thugish, ran his fingers trough greased up hair and pointed at a tall foreigner with a shaved head, black rimmed glasses, and an short old-fashioned beard as the fellow came out of the elevator, "He's underage, shouldn't be drinkin' on planes, let alone travelin' the railways while drunk."

Jagi and his three friends had made a hobby of welcoming foreigners to the country and waited near the elevators that took people from the airport to the train station in the basement. This foreigner was a bit big, but cowards with 4 to 1 odds in their favor suddenly become very brave. Plus the baldy was listening to some music with a pair of headphones and would never even hear them coming.

The four thugs made there move as the man paid for his train ticket and went to get on the train. Hopping the barricade, Jagi thought he'd have some fun with the gaijin, and knocked the headphones from his head, catching a brief hint of guitar riffs from inside. Shockingly, the foreigner caught them and simply put them back, walking on as if nothing had happened.

"Oh this guy is fun boss, Do it again!"

Jagi aimed to please so another flick sent the headphones flying. Flying right into the man's hands though, also in the same instant they left his ears. The man had fully expected the second attempt, and still did nothing. In truth this gaijin (or "foreigner") was Bryan Neir, subject of much discussion that day among a select few. He wasn't drunk, he was just dazed after a twelve hour flight from the United States and a weird dream about a purple ballroom. He was used to being taunted, learned the patterns, and was ready for the third attack on his headphones, using a judo shoulder throw to fling his taunter into a trashcan as he passed it before moving on. A trash can he had changed his path to specifically do that at that exact timing.

Bryan went on without a word as the three other thugs were too flabbergasted to move. After all. He was expected in Inaba soon and getting arrested for a fight was not on his agenda. Passing a mailbox he tossed in a letter to his pen pal before stepping unto the train. He'd been tempted to go see her, but he had the sense to know she only confided in him because she never planned to meet him. He wasn't about to violate their friendship by doing something she didn't want. He sat on the train thinking about it though. Though they'd never meet, and they'd never see each other romantically, Bryan was perfectly content in the arrangement. In actuality, he only confided what little he did for the same reasons she did with him.

Next Chapter: A New Family


	3. Chapter 2

_Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait folks, as I was unsure of how to proceed with introducing Bryan in this new version of the fic. A recent move to a new apartment and lack of a stable Internet connection have plagued me as well. In addition to all this, I've been hard at work converting my Dungeons and Dragon campaign world to 4th edition and trying to finally get the info for the world out of my head and on the page, a project that took me years before the conversion and was never completed. Theme Song: Usual You by Britney Spears. Why? The song's a little of both Bryan and Yukiko's perspectives and foreshadows some later dynamics between them. You'll get it later.  
_

Chapter Two: A New Family

Spotting a seat on the crowded train I made my way forward. I knew such a thing was a rare commodity in a city as heavily populated as Tokyo, so I took all the needed measures to distract the masses from my discovery. I didn't look at it directly, made sure not to walk like I had a goal. Everything was going fine. Then I spotted an old woman who was watching over a small boy. She looked like she hadn't sat down in her entire life. The stranger thing is that I couldn't figure either of them out. Normally I can just look at a person and figure out from their twitches, base expression, and shifts in body language what they are like. Even more so my gut instincts usually weave these into a tapestry of knowledge. That was not the case, and I had felt that feeling before though I could not clearly remember when. I got the strangest feeling of deja vu though.

"Excuse me, ma'am, here's a seat, you can have it it you like." I motioned to the seat, keeping an eye out for any greedy bastards that might make a move for the spot.

The old lady bent down and whispered something to the boy, who replied only with a nod and a grin, an oddly disturbing one at that. The boy's eye's met mine, ad they seemed so familiar. It then occurred to me. They were the same smoky gray as my own eyes. Looking in them I felt myself getting lost, as if they contained a bottomless depth. He watched me as the old lady clutched his hand tightly and guided him over to the seat, and kept watching as she sat down and lifted him into her lap. Who were these people? I couldn't even determine their nationality by looking at them.

I mulled on it as the train made its way out of the city and along the winding railways. When the train stopped at the station in Inaba I noticed the old lady and child getting off as well, but I disregarded that and checked a text message I'd received earlier in the day. I was fluent in Japanese, but couldn't read the typical written form of it. Thankfully though the sender had been considerate and used the easier to read romaji script. It was a script reserved for teaching the language to foreigners and for computer input. It took the words and formed them using the roman alphabet, which was used in most other foreign languages outside the orient.

"Welcome to Japan! Looking forward to meeting you. I'll be sending my daughter to pick you up. She's the only one of us that speaks English."

I furrowed my brow in thought, masculine references meant the sender was probably the father of the family. I'd be staying with the Amagi family at their family inn, doing some cleaning and helping with maintenance. A mother and father with one daughter, about a year younger than me but in the same grade. The fact they were not only willing to take in a foreign teenager when they had a daughter the same age but also trusted me alone with her before even meeting me just confirmed how much different Japan was from America. Even though I'd come from a town even smaller than Inaba, a third of the seniors in my school were either pregnant or the fathers of those kids. I blame the sixties and the whole 'free love' movement accelerating the decline of the country's morale fiber but that's a sociological lecture for anther time. While I could make note of my theory of moral decline in relation to seven year age gaps among the riders on crowded school buses, the fact that I've never heard of a Japanese school bus, and the time period most of the parents of teenagers in both countries came from, that'd be boring. Besides, I was pulled from my mulling over the circumstances when I felt a tug on the back of my jacket.

I turned to see the boy from the train, and the old lady nearby, she spoke in a tone that was neither question nor statement, warm or cold, but a familiar and oddly disturbing neutrality, "Do you know if this is where I transfer to the train for Hinodedai?"

My hand hit my face in annoyance, "Why would you even ask a foreigner that? I mean, I know the answer, but still. Anyway," I handed her some yen, enough for a ticket, "This is the completely wrong direction. You'll have to wait for the train back to Tokyo."

"When is that?"

"Ma'am, do I look like I work here at the station? No disrespect intended, but go look at the train schedule over there. That money should cover your ticket, so you won't be stranded, but I have to go now."

I strode off, not waiting for them to complain. After all I had to meet someone. Sure enough, I spotted someone as I reached the bottom of the stairs in front of the station.

"Ah! You must be Neir-san!" a...drop dead gorgeous girl with long hair, a shy smile, and smooth balanced features called to me in English. She actually spoke with very little accent. I instantly noted she didn't seem the perfectionist type, at least not to that extent. She had to be the daughter I was told about. If you worked as a female in a traditional Japanese inn, you were usually expected to be perfect.

I decided to speak slightly slower than normal to be polite, "Well, unless the town is expecting a large number of tall foreign students with glasses, I must be." I flashed a smile, which was a rare thing for me to do with strangers, but I wanted to make a good impression, so I introduced myself in Japanese, "Hajimemashite. Watashi no namae wa Bryan desu. Dozo yoroshiku." _How do you do? My name is Bryan. Pleased to meet you._

She smiled and bowed a little, "Hajimemashite. Yukiko desu. Anata wa nihongo o hanashimasu ka?" _How do you do? I'm Yukiko. Do you speak Japanese?_

There was a slight pause as I translated the sentence in my brain, she had spoken at the speed of a native speaker, something I wasn't used to, "Hai, sukoshi hanashimasu." _Yes, I speak a little_, "Unfortunately, I'm probably going to be lost in a lot of conversations."

"I am the same with English." noted Yukiko motioning for me to follow her, "Follow me. It's a bit of a hike to get to the inn from here but at least you'll be staying pretty close to the school."

"Thanks. I'm glad to have the chance to study here. To be honest my grades aren't that great, I'm surprised I got selected for this. I guess my teachers thought I would benefit from a bit more challenge."

"You do not apply yourself?"

Whoops, "Oh, don't worry about that, I intend to give 110% at my job at the inn. I've just never been able to get into studying. It's like the teachers go too slow when they need to go faster or too fast when they need to slow down. I suppose they can't teach everyone the same way though. Eventually I just started ignoring the teachers."

Yukiko seemed a little confused, "But don't you have to score pretty high on a test to get into an exchange program?"

"Yeah." I tapped the side of my head, "Limited eidetic memory, I can recall pretty much anything I hear, as long as it isn't numbers. I never do anything in class or appear to pay any attention, but my brain is like a sponge. I've never gotten less than a 90% on a test except for math, but never doing homework pulls down my average."

"Oh well, you should do well here. Schools here in Nihon tend to put more focus on tests in the grading system." (NOTE: Japanese people call Japan "Nihon").

"Well that's good to hear." I smiled again, strolling down the street with such a friendly and attractive girl was nice. As we passed a gas station, I heard a growl. Looking at the source, I found Yukiko blushing in embarrassment, "Have you eaten today?"

She looked at her feet, "I've been so busy lately I haven't gotten around to it."

"Oh well then let me treat you to a snack."

"Oh that's not necessary!" she was speaking Japanese again, fortunately I knew enough of it, "I can wait, I'm on a diet anyway!"

I looked sideways at her, "Why are you dieting? You look fine to me."

She looked at her feet again, "No...no, I'm a bit wide in the hips, I just need to loose a few pounds."

I sighed, "There's nothing wrong with your hips. In fact, I'd say they're probably healthier than slimmer hips." I was about to mention how wider hips are better for giving birth, but thankfully noticed how weird and rude that would sound, "If you really want to loose weight I'll buy you something healthy. You came all this way to get me without eating, it's the least I can do. I won't take no for an answer."

"Well if you insist." she smiled faintly and waited for me at the door as I went in.

"I do. You'll thank me in the long run, since cutting calories isn't the way you lose weight anyway."

She looked confused, "It isn't?"

"Of course not. Calories are fuel. You know, a required thing. The thing to do is eat better calories by cutting down on bad fats and excess sugar. You don't eat at restaurants a lot do you?"

"Um, I've been eating at the local mall with my friend Chie a bit more often lately."

I crossed my arms, "There you go. Cheap restaurant food is full of preservatives that slow your metabolism, bad fats, and bad carbohydrates. You can lose three pounds I bet by cutting back on that." Suddenly, I did a double take, "Wait a second...am I stopped in a gas station parking lot giving someone I just met diet advice?"

Yukiko covered her mouth to suppress a snicker at my expression, which was one of realization, "Yes you are."

"Hmm...I'm a very strange person." on that note I turned and entered the gas station, Yukiko snickering behind me.

The shop clerk was a young guy just out of high school with very wavy hair and a pretty face straight out of a bishonen manga. He greeted me warmly as I threw some Pocky and some overpriced granola bar onto the counter (Don't give me that look. I wasn't dieting. Pocky doesn't have much sugar either so there), "I guess you're new in town, sir. You a high school student?"

"Yeah. Just got in after a twelve hour flight."

"Harsh."

"Yeah, especially since I'm terrified of heights."

The guy laughed and handed me my change, "Nice to meet you." He offered a hand shake, "If you're looking for part-time work we're looking for some help around here. We don't care if you're a high school student."

Taking the handshake I suddenly felt strange, I dismissed it as jet lag though, "I'll think about it. But I already have some part-time work lined up."

"That's good. Well, welcome to Inaba anyway."

"Thanks."

Back outside, Yukiko turned to see what I got and grabbed the granola, then noted, "Are you okay? You look a little pale."

Come to think of it, I was feeling a bit dizzy. Habitually, I looked at the time: 4:00 pm, "I'm okay, probably just tired from the trip." I remarked, forgetting I had taken a nap on the train.

"Oh, then you should get some sleep when we get to the inn, which reminds me: Your stuff arrived yesterday, we put the boxes in your room." Yukiko wasn't nearly as shy has she had been early, which was nice, "Really I expected more. Did you really only have two?"

"Yeah, I don't really own much stuff, I tend to live fairly Spartan. You know, just the basics."

We arrived after a reasonable hike and I was soon greeting Yukiko's parents, "How do you do? My name is Bryan Neir. Thank you for taking care of me." Familiar with custom, I presented a gift to my hosts, "Please accept this."

The mother handed the package to one of the waitresses, who opened it for her, "Oh, a new set of kitchen knives, thank you."

"I thought it would be the most useful thing overall, since you serve a lot of food here."

The mother smiles, "A very practical gift, good to see such a well mannered boy has come to stay with us. Since you will be going to school with my Yukiko, I hope you will take good care of each other."

"Yes, ma'am. If anyone gets fresh with her they'll answer to me." I half-jokingly declared, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some sleep. I ate on the plane, so you don't need to worry about that."

"Certainly, you can start work whenever you have settled in. As long as you work three days each week your way will be paid. Work more and you get some pocket money."

"Thank you ma'am. I'll do my best to meet your expectations."

One of the waitresses showed me to my room and I settled in, spreading out the futon and plopping down for a much needed snooze. Too bad the rest wasn't all that restful, I was about to doze off when I heard an argument in the hall. A peek through the door revealed that Yukiko, uncharacteristically angry, was getting down responding to the other yelling, which must have come from some woman I hadn't seen before. Wait...in Tokyo I'd seen a news report on some kind of political scandal, and that woman had been one of the people involved. I hadn't understood a lot of what the newscasters had said since I wasn't paying any attention, but from I gathered she was a politician's mistress.

It was strange. I'd always been able to read people like books, but the woman read like a closed one. A layer of snide arrogance and unreasonable expectation seemed to hide some kind of vulnerability. Oddly she reminded me of Yukiko, but while Yukiko seemed to be obliging to shield herself, this woman was unfriendly to a fault. Both had some sort of pain they wanted to hide. Then again, everyone does.

Not wanting to get involved, I simply went back to bed. I felt bad about it, but there was nothing I could do. After all, if I overstepped my bounds it would create more problems than it solved. Better to avoid confrontation until I was more used to local custom.

Next Chapter: Complications and a Midnight Matinée

_Startling change! Remember how the teacher last chapter spoke of early transfers? Bryan has actually arrived earlier than Seta did in the game, but only by a day. Since the second vanishing actually happened rather rapidly and very close to the foggy day that killed the victim, I figured the first victim probably had the same poor luck. The earlier arrival itself makes sense due to international exchange students needing more time to settle in. Anyway, you can probably tell from the title that Bryan will become aware of the Midnight Channel in a slightly different way._


	4. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: The following characterization of Mayumi Yamano, the announcer that had the affair with a certain politician, is in no way canon. It's simply based on a few smatterings of information about her scattered throughout the game. While to some she may seem a bit out of character (as she came off as a bit of a bitch in the game), my reasons for depicting her like this are explained within the story, not only this chapter but also in others. While the depiction of her in this chapter is based entirely in Bryan's assumptions, readers of the original fic know how accurate his assumptions on personality are. Also you'll notice Tenroe Miku making another appearance. By the way, the theme song for this chapter is the jazz version of Layla. Yes that does mean (as I said earlier) that this chapter is vital to the overall theme of the story. Enjoy and (if you like) analyze!_

Chapter Three: Complications and a Midnight Matinée

"What are you doing here?" a strange voice demanded, a voice of familiarly split emotions. However, instead of producing something neutral, the voice brimmed with chaos. Glee, anger, and sorrow, all rolled into one, clad in an armor of supreme annoyance directed at me.

"Who's there?" I demanded as I surveyed my surroundings.

I couldn't tell where I was, but there didn't seem to be much 'here' in that particular 'there'. In fact, all save a winding road made of red and black blocks, there was nothing but an endless void of white. The thought instantly popped in my mind, a recollection of my hometown. Red, white, and black were my school's colors. Coincidence or not, there didn't seem to be anyone around to tell me.

But that voice was there, "You aren't supposed to be here."

"I said who's there?"

"You're not the one I wanted."

I advanced, seeing how it was the only thing I could do, though I turned completely 360 degree every few steps. Whoever was speaking, and wherever they spoke from, I wasn't about to let them sneak up on me, "Answer me properly! Who are you? Is this a dream?"

"You don't seek the truth. You already know it."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know it better than anyone. You can sense it, you understand."

Understandably, I was starting to get annoyed, "If I understood, would I be asking what the hell you're talking about?"

The voice didn't reply, instead came several new ones, "Monster! Freak! He's a freak! He's not normal! What's up with that guy? Normal people aren't like that!"

"What's going on?" I shouted, to no avail.

"Monster!"

The voice was so familiar, I shouted again, "Who's there?"

"Freak!"

"Dammit! Why are you doing this?" I demanded in vain.

"He's a freak!"

"Answer me!" I kept my head clear, kept thinking about how to handle the strange event. I toned out the taunting, I was used to it. People are mean sometimes, can be short-sighted. It's nothing to bother with, no reason to get upset.

"He's not normal!"

I didn't bother speaking out anymore, it was useless. I just kept going, spotting a door in the distance I made my way forward. Wherever this place was it was trying to attack my mind, something they would find incredibly hard.

"What's up with that guy? Asking you out? Like you'd date that weirdo!"

I stopped...

Another voice replied to the other, oddly uncomfortable, I could almost feel the light pain of it bowing to the consensus of the masses, too afraid to think independently, "Yeah, I know right? I told him I have a boyfriend."

"Oh, you're always too nice. You should have shot him down straight, teach him a lesson!"

I started slipping, it was starting to bother me...it had suddenly gone from generic teasing to personal. Where was I? What were the voices? I shouted again, not caring that they wouldn't acknowledge me, "Who are you? DAMN YOU! Who are you?"

A block gave way on the edge of he path, where my foot happened to be, I could feel myself slipping in a new way.

"I don't really think he was interested anyway. Maybe he was just lonely?"

I fell, for a long time I just fell, down through an endless void of loss and regret, an all too familiar pit of self-loathing that I had come to Japan to escape. Further and further I fell, the plain white nothingness finally broke slightly, bars of darkness forming a large rectangular border to my abyss. Soon after, I glimpsed a light below and realized the tunnel was soon coming to an end. Dread filled me for some reason, as if somehow I knew death awaited me at the end.

But it was not to be, I found myself grabbed by a white gloved hand from the darkness of the border. My left arm firmly clasped, my fall stopped. I looked to face of my savior only to see a strange masked man, "You're not ready just yet."

Suddenly another hand pulled at my leg, unseen but present none the less, "Destiny! Don't block destiny!"

The man who saved me was unrelenting, "A destiny given, but without a sword to shape it." his eyes met mine as his free hand went towards my face, "Awaken."

I sprang up, jarred awake. My hand went to my face as if clutching a wound as I struggled to clear my head and recall what kind of nightmare had disturbed me so much. I could only recall falling, through an endless void...and then.... I decided to leave it be, probably better to not remember. I gazed over at the clock. It was nearly midnight. Since I'd slept enough for one night I decided to get up and watch some TV, maybe read a book.

I walked over to my book collection first, which was still packed away, in search of some reading material. _Advanced Principles of Personality, Carl Jung's Theories of the Human Psyche, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya, Meditation for Dummies_, the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and 4th Edition core rulebooks, _Bobby Fischer's Guide to Chess_.... Sighing I plopped down on he floor. I needed new books. I'd read all those, as nerdy as they were. Instead I moved to one of the larger boxes that had been delivered, intent on killing time somehow.

With hopes of unpacking my computer in my mind I was all the more surprised when the TV came on. At first all I saw was static, but then the picture suddenly became clearer. A woman was in a small room with her back to the camera looking scared as she curled up in the corner. She stood, looking around with tears in her eyes at something I couldn't make out but seemed to be all around her. I was shocked, and my mind raced. It was that announcer lady, the one who'd had an affair and was apparently hiding out in the inn. But that room was nothing like my room, in fact it was more modern. Where was she? Why was she on TV in a state of panic? Was this a rerun of some TV show she'd been in?

No, that fear and sorrow were real, it was so real I could nearly feel it myself. It weighed on me, tugging at my chest as if she was crying to me for help. Suddenly a stabbing pain coursed through my mind and spread in a flash to my entire being, a mysterious voice rang out, "I am thou...thou art I...the gate has been opened. Your power...is the answer. Find the question."

I fell forward, reaching out for something, _anything_ to steady myself. I ended up catching myself on the TV stand, or so I thought. My arm felt a bit cold, so I looked and beheld the reason. My left arm was inside the television! No I hadn't broken through the screen, the screen had become some sort of portal, the image gone. I reached for the woman I had seen, even though the TV was too small, I might be able to contact her, send a message.

A hand found mine, but not how I was expecting, nails gripped my arm tight and yanked, trying to pull me through the television with unholy ferocity. I struggled, but my attacker was far stronger than me. It couldn't have been the announcer lady, not with that kind of raw power. There was no time to ponder the matter, as it felt like the hands were flaying the flesh from my limb, the harder I fought the worse it hurt. Abruptly I was slammed forward into the TV, then I managed to get some ground only to be slammed again.

Without warning, whatever was after me let go and I stumbled back, falling hard to the floor. Immediately grabbing my arm in an attempt at stopping the bleeding, I realized there was none. There was only the faintest glimpse of words etched in my skin. Words that chilled me to the bone, "Found you." but they were gone as fast as I had seen them.

I stood up and straightened out my clothes. I was about to distract myself from the problem by kicking myself for wearing my clothes to bed again instead of pajamas, but then I realized something else far more deserving of my attention. I noticed that despite all that racket, no one was rushing to see what was wrong. Curious, I slipped out of my room and stepped lightly around on the floor I was staying on. All the doors were closed with the odd rustle of a guest trying to get to sleep. I might have woken them up but of course none of them would come help. None of them gave a damn about anyone here. There was one door open though, a very large room compared to mine, so I could only assume a well off guest was using it. The light was on but as I approached I saw no one inside. I glanced over at the bathroom for the floor and saw it wasn't occupied, there were no lights on at the bottom of the stairs either.

"Hello?" I said quietly, and there wasn't even a jostle, so I stepped in. I felt a bit of static from the TV as I passed it, the kind that lingered on old TVs when they'd been on for a long time and recently turned off. There were no attached rooms so clearly no one was in there. Odd.

On my way out I noticed a picture frame on the floor near the bed, leaning on it as if it had fallen off the bed and cracked. It was a picture of that politician. I stepped closer but was smart enough to only look and not touch. This was clearly the announcer's room after all and if she was actually really missing, then touching would be a fool's error. On closer inspection, the picture frame seemed to be a bit worn, as if handled a lot, but was otherwise fairly new. My mind turned the pieces around and reasoned that she must have been thinking about her relationship a lot, even before it was exposed. Guilt? Maybe. Periods of troubled but affectionate gazing was more likely, unless she was using him. Such an assumption would also be making the assumption that she was a moron. The benefit did not outweigh the risk of that kind of relationship. No matter the money or influence she could have while secretly his mistress, only a fool would not see the price. If they were discovered, which they had been, both would loose their jobs. Even if she was using him, if they were found she'd end up with no job, no future, and a boy toy with equally grim prospects. Writing a book like revealed mistresses do in America was no option either. He was too small-time for that to make money, unless she was pushing him to advance in politics. Besides, why would she look at his picture that much if he meant nothing to her?

I stood and glanced around the room, weighing the secrets contained in every item, for some reason compelled to gather everything knowable about the apparently missing woman. The vanity bore many beauty products, mainly maintenance stuff like moisturizers and several shades of base. Tools of the profession, I noted that besides lipstick there was no other makeup on the table. The shade was a light red, so clearly she went for a slightly more natural look that day. Though why apply any makeup at all expect for the base for complexion? She might have had a guest, though it just as easily might have been her habit.

While mulling about this I spotted something out of place. One of the moisturizer tubes was darker than the others and used more often. I went closer and read as much as I could of the label, which wasn't a lot. I could only regret not being better at reading Japanese. All I could translate was 'man' and 'woman', which were on separate lines of the same section. I took a shot in the dark. Since the tube was darker, it had to be a moisturizer made to be used by either sex to reasonable effect.

I pictured her talking with her lover, lying in bed perhaps, "You have such nice skin for a man. What cream do you use?"

A smile, indicative of deep comfort taken in her compliment, anointed the face of a man laying in bed with his ray of hope, his face relaxed but showing the creases of having been lonely for too long in the past, "Thank you...Ms. Yamano-"

A laugh, "I keep telling you to call me Yuri. You're so shy about the strangest things."

I stopped the wandering of my thoughts and cemented my assumption: She was using the cream that had been working so well for him. His skin did seem pretty nice in the picture after all. It was a shot in the dark, but it fit...felt right. My eyes wandered to the closest as if guided by an outside force. A dress thrown to the bottom of the closet, too nice to not have been stored correctly, and it wouldn't been in the closet if it had been worn. It was easy to spot the hanger it had been on amidst the other clothes hanging up. I wasn't sure what significance the dress had, but the romantic in me wanted it to be a dress she had been saving. A dress that she meant to wear if he ever came to her. The harsh-surfaced lady, who felt no one understood her but him, alone and trapped in her room for days...her prince not coming....

A familiar pain seized my mind suddenly, and as it passed it dawned on me that I was spending too much time in the room, I glanced out the doorway for anyone watching, making the motion with only my eyes so it would look casual, and putting on the expression of a half-asleep guy that had wandered into the wrong room. My years in the school drama club were handy, but I couldn't help finding it strange how natural my actions felt. Stranger still, there were no signs of anyone but sleeping guests. Surely I should have been hearing some staff doing something somewhere.

I trotted down the stairs. Without all the people buzzing around, I could take the time and had the presence of mind to appreciate the inn for what it was. With the moonlight almost drifting into the window, covering a large portion of the lobby in its glow, I found myself captured by the beauty of the finely selected wood flooring. The rich colors and unique grain playing smoothly into the marblesque floorings nearer to the entrance as well as the rugs that made the place seem more comfortable as you moved into the guest areas. A hard feat indeed. Striding to the center of the room, I looked around at the room as a whole. A sensation enveloped me, those walls could tell stories, stories that could last a thousand lifetimes almost. It was a warm hug like I imagined a hug would be from a grandmother as she told you of every embrace she had shared or seen in her many decades. I found myself feeling kind of alone, almost more alone than I had ever felt. Alone, surrounded by a sensation that I knew no one else likely felt. Alone in my way of seeing and feeling things.

Not quite as alone as I thought though, as the glimpse of light through a cracked door behind the front desk drew me towards the one glint of existence that was awake in the inn. I peaked in, and was still alone. Yukiko was in there, in her own world. She had been drawn deeply into thoughts so entangling that a man with no eyes and half his brain removed could still see and know she was in anguish. I watched her from afar in the way only I could, saw her in ways no one else tried to. In the corner, the petal of a single flower in a vase of many fell slowly from where it should have been and tumbled down, striking the rim of the vase and twirling to the floor. A bouquet of many colors, the flower somehow managed to be the only one of its color, pink...alone. I somehow knew...the flower, that lone flower of the many, was missing something it needed to live. It's pain was simpler though, it had shed its tear. Yukiko couldn't....wouldn't... she needed...

I turned, strange sensations I wasn't familiar with pacing over me, a knot of emotional strands I may have recognized if not for all the chaos. Almost of its own accord, my hand went to my face and my eyes closed themselves. Instead of darkness there was the color of velvet, a wanting female face that moved its gaze from me to the piano...my fingers, foreign as they were to the ivory paths beneath them, moved to walk the roads anyway, yearning to express something.

"Neir-san, are you okay?" a quiet voice speaking English snapped me from my thoughts. Were they only thoughts? All I could do was wonder.

I lifted my eyelids to see the lady who had shown me to my room yesterday, standing before me with a concerned face, maybe too concerned, "I'm awake," I whispered unsurely, dazed but still not wanting Yukiko to know I had seen her, "I mean, I'm okay. Ms....?"

"Tenroe Miku. I'm the head of the cleaning staff, you can call me Miku-san."

"Thank you, Miku-san." I affirmed, then glanced over my shoulder, "Something happened." I'd meant to phrase it as a question, but it came out a little firmer than I meant it to.

"Yes, Ms. Yamano was complaining to Amagi-sama about an argument she had gotten into with a member of the staff. Amagi-sama has been working very hard recently...and I guess the stress exceeded her limit."

"She's okay though right? It was just fatigue and stress?"

She nodded, "Yes, she'll be staying in the hospital a few days, but otherwise she'll be just fine."

I couldn't help looking over my shoulder at that room again, "I guess I came at the right time, sh-"" quick correction, "you'll need all the extra help you can get these next few days."

"You're worried about Yukiko-san." She stated factually, I turned to see a pained expression that was not as bad as Yukiko's but with its own share of thoughts swirling around, "So am I....She'll be taking charge of the inn while her mother is away. I'm not certain...of many things concerning that."

"What about Mr. Amagi?"

"He's not a people person, handles the books mostly. Besides, he'll be staying with his wife most of the time. I think he worries about her more than he let's on." Suddenly coming out of her pondering, she realized she'd spoken too freely, "What am I doing? I don't need to trouble you with all these things. I've said too much already."

"I have that effect sometimes. I've been told I'm very...comfortable."

She smiled, "Indeed. Well, you should get some sleep, I'll keep an eye on Yukiko-san."

I nodded and she started to head for the kitchen, likely to make some tea for a talk with Yukiko. I called quietly to her, "What of Ms. Yamano?"

She turned, surprised at the question, "I haven't seen her since we got back from the hospital. Her room hasn't be touched though. It's strange. I didn't think she'd run off with nothing. Even after contributing to...you know."She was clearly trying hard not to speak ill of someone that she obviously wanted to smack. Miku-san's affection for the mother of the family, her boss, was written a plain as day in her actions during those few minutes we'd talked.

I nodded...and my mind wandered, barely noticing Miku-san had turned around again and was leaving the room. My gaze fell on a large TV in a waiting area just inside a sizable nook (one of those breakfast nook things turned into something more practical?). I could only remember the events from earlier in the night and wonder what they meant. As I stood there staring at that device, sleep suddenly seemed to be a very appealing concept. Appealing...and impossible.

Next Chapter: Day and Night, Sleep and Awakening.

_Look forward to the next chapter folks, a large chunk of which will be in Yukiko's perspective, clearing up exactly what her first impression of Bryan is. It also happens to include the night that Ms. Yamano was killed in the game. With limited knowledge of the Midnight Channel, can Bryan save her? Whatever the end result of the incident, what effect will it have on the story? How long will it take for the sticky left shift key on my keyboard to drive me totally and completely insane? Stay tuned and find out!_


	5. Chapter 4

_Author's Note: The theme song for this chapter is "Loves Comes" by The Posies, a fairly Beatles-like song about a girl troubled by her life who isolates her true self and is seized suddenly by love. You might wonder why the title is different than the last chapter said it would be. Well to be honest I was writing this chapter and reached a point were it felt right to end it, and hadn't reached the part that would have made the title make sense, so I had to split the title and the chapter into two. Enjoy, but be forewarned, the perspective jumps around a bit in this chapter._

Chapter Four: Day to Night

"Amagi Yukiko, are you ready for this?" I asked myself in the mirror, adjusting my kimono. It was time to get started on the day's tasks, not that I'd gotten any sleep the previous night.

A glimmer of hope entered my mind and I decided to go wake up Neir-san, maybe, just maybe, spending some more time with the exchange student would brighten the day. With my mother's fatigue making it impossible or her to manage the inn, it fell to me, and I was somewhat thankful I'd been training to take over the place almost since birth. Not actively or officially of course, but you can't see my mother do her job and not stop o observe. She was a dynamo, a miracle with two legs. It was a level of perfection I knew I could never match.

Realizing I'd gotten to his door, I knocked, "Neir-san-"

"Yes?"

"Gah!" I almost jumped out of my sandals and had somehow instantly turned to face him. I don't know what was more shocking to me, the fact he'd been behind me or the speed of my own reaction, "You startled me!"  
I noticed a smile cross his face briefly, probably fighting back laughter at my expense, "Sorry, it's the shoes." He motioned to his feet, which were clad in similar sandals to my own traditional ones, in fact, Neir-san had already gotten dressed in his work uniform, a nice but fairly plain and durable kimono, "I normally wear heavier shoes because I'm unusually light on my feet for my size." he looked a bit uncomfortable, "You were about to wake me?"

I perked up instantly, jumping back on topic to hide my embarrassment, "Yes. I was hoping you would be willing to help out a bit today. I'm glad to see you are. I know you must have a lot to do though, to get settled in."

"Well, regardless," he suddenly stood perfectly straight and saluted, "Ready, willing, and looking like a tourist! The enemy dust balls will be too amused to know what hit 'em Captain!"

I was torn between amusement and utter fascination at the strange behavior. Even though he'd struck me as overly serious and a bit awkward, yet warm, the whimsical action seemed a perfectly natural thing for him to do. His face suddenly flashed that smile again (likely at whatever odd expression I had on), and in my state of fascination it seemed so bright, like he had brushed his teeth with a drop of sunlight. I felt like I was looking at someone infinitely warm and kind, but the slightest change, as imperceivable as it was, hinted at something wrong. I found myself doubting. What I was doubting I couldn't really say, but I knew that feeling, and it was definitely doubt.

Those thoughts had passed though my mind in an instant, so I was pretty sure there was no pause. I smiled, though something in his eyes made me uncomfortable, I might have laughed at the comments, but I wasn't in a laughing mood.

"You look fine." I lied

In fact he looked very much like a tourist in that kimono, a poor tourist. I stealthily looked him over, noting that even though we'd gotten his measurements from him, and the kimono was the right size technically, it looked all wrong on him. What was supposed to be something elegant looked more like a bathrobe on his large frame. His shoulders were a bit too broad for the kimono to retain the typical straight and slender design. Even though he probably didn't have six pack abs, he was still solidly built and clearly strong, like those warriors that carried princesses from evil towers in the books read to me as a child. My mind wandered to the things he could do to me if he wanted...

I forced the thoughts of his intimidating frame from my mind, I was likely looking at him through rose-colored glasses anyway, looking for things that weren't there, making him into the prince in my own fairy tale. He was wearing glasses after all, what prince wears glasses?

There were those eyes again, looking at me as if he could see right into me. Smokey-gray eyes that pierced, a color sometimes called 'dreamboat' but with far too much edge to it. He spoke, making it clear that despite all my thoughts only an moment had past. I almost didn't hear what he said, those eyes being as distracting as they were. They seemed as if...in that instant they had read my thoughts from a page in a novel.

"I'm a bit surprised though. I thought Miku-san would be the one waking me up. Aren't I on the cleaning staff?" he stated simply, his eyes looking around, piercing everything with a thousand analyses. His warm face going serious and very nearly cold in expression.

I fought back the thoughts again, being alone with him made it too easy to get caught up in his intensity, his slightly off-kilter and mercurial attitude, "I'm in charge of the inn today, so I thought I'd rally the staff for the day." I lied again.

He looked at me again, for some reason his face filled with a strange mix of warmth, coldness, and concern, his eyes focused, knowing, "We'll I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't sleep much, I should give Miku-san a hand. If you need anything hi...I mean joushi-san, just call."

He'd almost called me something else, but why correct to joushi-san? Of all the terms for boss, why that one? I found myself unsure of what to think of that, "Isn't that a bit formal?" I gave him an excuse to chalk it up to unfamiliarity with the language, I didn't deserve something so prominent.

He looked a bit disarmed, the first time I'd seem him not look intimidating or intense, "Um...did I put the one in improper context? Or would you prefer taishou-san?"

Something felt off, I couldn't put my hand on it though, "You can just call me Yukiko."

He nodded, putting on a smile that somehow seemed different, "Right Yukiko-san."

There he went again with overdoing the formality, but he had already bounded down the stairs before I could get the words out. Instead my back found itself against the wall and I let myself slide into a crouched position. My heart wasn't sure how to beat, my mind unsure of what to think. It felt like we'd been speaking for an eternity, but with my ears plugged. I'd have to apologize later, after I'd decided whether I was scared of him or not.

A thought suddenly occurred to me, he'd not slept well last night and said he guessed Miku-san hadn't either, then made it a point to mention he'd help me too if I needed it. He must have come down in the night or something and seen me, or talked to Miku-san about it. Neir-san...had he been up all night after that worrying about us? Would he have taken the day to settle in if my mother hadn't collapsed? My head went to my hands. I was a burden already and he hadn't even been in town a full day yet.

_Bryan's Perspective_

I sat down on the bottom of the stairs suddenly, having strangely lost my compulsion to stand up. My thoughts wandered back to her eyes as I'd looked in them only moments before, not thinking how strange it was I was actually making eye contact with a person I'd just met. I hadn't even thought of that, my mind too concerned with the expression she'd had on her face, the look in her eyes of a deer in the headlights. I'd scared her a little bit, more unsettled her really. It was obvious. I wanted to discount it to the fact that I'd startled her, but I couldn't. Her body language, controlled as it was, had revealed her desire to hide from me.

"Oh Neir-san, you look like you've had your spleen ripped out. See yourself in a mirror?" the man laughed, having made it clear that he was trying to break the ice with gentle prodding. It took me a few seconds to recall he was Yukiko's father. Remember how I said it was unusual for me to make eye contact with new people? He didn't seem to notice my confusion "I'm kidding."

I quickly stood and walked partway to the kitchen where I'd been meaning to go, just in case Yukiko had heard or was about to come down. If she'd seen me sitting at the very bottom of the stairs...well I'd rather not be any more unsettling to her.

"You seem to be in a good mood, Amagi-san." he didn't notice the delay in my adding the honorific, or maybe he attributed it to me being foreign, either way it's not that relevant.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

At the sound of my father's voice I quickly stood a headed to the stairs, stopping at the top when I noticed Bryan. He was standing halfway to the kitchen and talking with my father. His face was neutral but not overtly callous. His eyes were the probably, something about those eyes was different. They had looked at me piercing sure, but it had been rimmed with warmth and curiosity. Maybe it was because his face was so expressionless, but it seemed like those same eyes were trying to burn a hole through my father.

Bryan betrayed nothing in his voice, almost nothing, "You seem to be in a good mood Amagi...-san."

My thoughts instantly swept back to moments before when he had thrown highly respectful honorifics onto my name so casually, almost as if they meant nothing. Why the difference with my father? I was starting to get the impression that Bryan hated him.

"I suppose I am." Papa smiled, "My wife might have collapsed, but she's okay, and at least this way she'll finally rest. They'll make sure of it."

"I heard that you'd be making sure of it." even more hostility lingered in Bryn's voice, but my father seemed totally unaware of it. Did he think Bryan was doing it by accident?

"Well, someone's staring a hole through the exchange student." a young and teasing voice suddenly whispered into my ear.

"Gah!" I jumped, startled for the second time that day and lost my balance, nearly falling down the stairs if not for the quick reflexes of the girl who had done he startling. Mia, one of the cleaning staff under Miku-san, had a strong grasp and a fearful expression which went to apologetic as soon as she got me stable again.

I was more stricken by another response, the terrified face of a boy who barely knew me would be burned into my mind for a while. When I had started falling, everything seemed to go into slow motion, his gaze had shifted swiftly to see why I'd called out, recognizing that I was in trouble almost instantly, and he'd already came two long strides back to the base of the stairs before Mia had caught me.

My father's anger drowned out Mia's apologies, "Mia, how many times do you have to be told not to play around like that? Someone could get hurt!"

While I was detracted thinking he might fire her, Bryan slipped away. His behavior continued to make no sense to me, and I stopped to wonder why I wanted to figure it out so badly. Why I'd stopped worrying about my problems the moment he saluted me in jest.

"Father! It's fine! It was partly my fault for spying on your conversation while perched so precariously." I tried to calm him down and the thought that'd I'd been spying seemed to amuse him enough to make him stop yelling at least, "I'm curious though, I thought you were staying at mom's side?"

_Bryan's Perspective_

I found myself lingering just inside the door of the kitchen, out of view of the rest. Yukiko's words echoed my own curiosity and I was to worried that I'd left a bad impression on the dad to fully register that she'd spoken more formally when referring to her father. Though I would later wonder if it meant more or less affection. It seemed to vary a lot over in Japan, and I'd also mull over how Yukiko had taken my deliberately formal honorifics to her.

Unsure as to why I was listening in, it would be quite easy to compare our combined strange behavior to a Shakespearian comedy. Dancing about each other, unsure of our own reasons for doing so, in a waltz clumsier than even a pair of peg-legged pirates trying to add a mastery of Latin dance to their resumes. I did the only logical thing after coming to that realization, I stopped acting stupid.

"I didn't see much use in saying with her. All she was doing is bickering at me to go and help you at the inn, and saying she'd be more comfortable knowing even job here was filled. So I came back to get to work like she asked." I heard Mr. Amagi's explanation and from what little I knew of the woman I figured that was exactly what his wife had said to him.

I discovered I was really tense all of a sudden, and wasn't sure why, so I just loosened up and started looking for Miku-san so I could get back to work. In retrospect, it should have been obvious why I was so tense around Yukiko's dad, as my own experience with parental figures had never really been very positive. I nearly spat at the fact I'd let myself think about that, and reminded myself I'd come to Japan to start anew, to get past the problems I constantly suffered back home. I'd just been clawing my way out of a hole and letting myself slip back down into the same old pit.

Miku-san started me scrubbing the staff areas of the hotel, and the fact that the assignment kept the foreign guy in the kimono out of the sight of the guests didn't escape my notice. I understood though. As nice as Miku-san and the Amagi family was to me, this was a traditional Japanese inn, which require certain things. One of those was of course a non-foreign staff. The mere fact they even let me work there for my living expenses showed how massively accepting they were. To be honest, I probably would have asked to be kept out of the public eye anyway. No need to damage the nice people that had taken me in.

I'd have to get the lead out when I was at school the next day, make up for lost time. Maybe I could make some friends in between periods of fighting off fascinated country school kids.

I laughed at myself. Those 'kids' were mostly around my age after all. It's not that I counted myself as more mature, though that might be the case a lot of the time. I'd been thinking about the school from the perspective of an observer, a problem I'd had for years. Stepping into the show that constantly played out in front of me was as difficult as stepping into a TV to tell Ross and Rachel to stop being such stupid pricks.

I paused at the thought and looked at my arm, still unwounded from the mauling it had received the previous night. Well maybe going into a TV wasn't that hard, but I'm pretty sure whatever was inside there wasn't the cast of Friends.

I found my thoughts going on several more wild tangents that day, a side effect of being overly fond of using metaphors...or were those analogies? I guess I should have paid more attention in English class, but that's beside the point. I spent the rest of the day in the staff areas cleaning up after them, not that it was all that necessary, they were pretty neat after all. Since they worked in a different area of the inn I didn't see the remaining members of the Amagi family much. I did spend a bit of time getting to know the staff. The most animated of which was the young woman (still older than me by a few years) that had nearly caused Yukiko to fall down the stairs earlier. Her name was Mia, her family name escapes me. I also found myself talking a lot with Miku-san, her warm and maternal nature reminding me of a better time in my life. It felt good, not only the friendly staff, but working at a reasonably enjoyable job.

After a fairly leisurely day of helping neaten the staff areas (mostly the kitchen, which needed a lot of cleaning after every meal), I joined the rest of the staff in cleaning the lobby and waiting areas, all the areas traveled by many during the day, but almost totally abandoned at night with the exception of the staff.

"Good work today, Bryan." Miku smiled at me, having slipped easily into calling me by my first name with no honorifics.

"Thanks, Miku-san." I replied, we were putting the supplies away for the day, and despite the fact I hadn't done a lot and had the chance to rest many times, I was still tired.

With a nod of approval from my senior, I went back to my room to change and spotted that the rain that had started not long ago had brought in some fog. I came wandering back down not long after, finding the most of the staff had retreated to bed. I was dressed down, but as presentable in a TV and some old jeans that had aged well, 'well broken in' rather than worn out. I was also wearing socks as I'd forgotten to buy any inside shoes, but that wasn't really that big a deal.

I glanced at the clock on my cellphone, it was nearly midnight. It occurred to me that the TV in my room had done that weird thing at about the same time. I pondered returning to my room, unsure if my TV was the only one that did it or not. I spotted that large TV in the waiting area again and walked over, my cellphone still out. As I stood directly in front of it, the clock hit midnight.

Nothing happened.

I rolled my eyes and started to turn away, thinking I should check my own TV to make certain, but then the TV in front of me flicked on. I re-centered my sights and beheld a far worse sight than the night before. The figure in the corner looked on the brink of insanity, watching an identical figure ripping at the walls in the room. I could see the walls more clearly, they were covered in posters that for some reason the aggressive version hated with a passion. The aggressive version of the announcer lady started shouting at the crying one, demanding things I couldn't hear and getting more agitated as she rambled.

Suddenly, almost like a scene from one of those famed Japanese horror films, the crying one stood up, grinning through tears with a devastating single-minded expression. Pain, anger at it's own vulnerability, longing, I could see it written all over the..._thing's_ face.

Things were getting out of hand. I touched the screen lightly, thankful that it was a portal as well. Oddly though the image stayed. The fact made me confident that if I stepped through I be going right to the place I was seeing. In retrospect my thought process was a bit strange. I was about to step into some kind of TV nightmare world with no doubts about doing so in my mind. I was only worried about getting to the right spot and dealing with the situation. Any other person would have thought such behavior suicidal, or at least too reckless.

Taking a deep breath and shutting my eyes just in case the tunnel was long and gooey, I lifted my leg through and stepped in, like a boxer stepping into the ring.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

I finished drying my hair as I stepped into my bedroom with a sigh. I'd taken a longer soak than usual that night, trying to avoid rejoining the rest of the world for as long as I could. The day had been so tiring I almost forgot that school was starting on the next. My first day managing everything by myself had gone well, but only because everything was already organized so well already. After the first few times, the staff had stopped asking me about anything, deeming me too frazzled for consultation I supposed. I knew that was only a small part of it. They noticing I was feeling out of m element and were trying to ease the load as much as they could. They were just trying to help. Knowing that didn't ease the disappointment I was feeling.

It's not like I wanted the job. I enjoyed greeting guests well enough, as long as they didn't try and start a conversation. That part was terrifying most of the time. I was never sure want I was supposed to respond.

I threw the towel into the hamper in the corner at that, as I remember it wasn't even my fault I was distracted all day. It was that exchange student's weird attitude that had me on pin and needles. Was the culture difference really that huge? No, couldn't be that, he'd seemed pretty well informed about our culture when he gave that thank you gift when meeting my parents. He was clearly trying his best to get along and fit in. So why did he seem like a square peg in a round whole? The fact I was thinking so much about him had me perplexed as well. It was like reading a good book. I just couldn't overcome my curiosity and put it aside.

For some reason, something my friend Chie had said needled its way into my mind. She was always really into rumors and superstitions, and when we bumped into each other a few days earlier she'd told me about something called the Midnight Channel, "Look into your TV at midnight, when your all alone, and your soul mate will appear. Since my curiosity was already running rampant I almost couldn't help trying it out.

I stepped over to the small TV I had in my room and checked the time. It was midnight on the dot. I was about to look up when the TV suddenly flicked on, and I was startled for the third time that day by the fact I hadn't done that. I checked to make sure Mia or that weird foreigner hadn't sneaked into my room and taken the remote to play a prank on me. I couldn't spot it so I went to look where it usually fell, under the bed. There it was, so...if no one had turned it on...

I walked closer to the TV, seeing nothing but static at first, though I could faintly make out what looked like a room. Suddenly, from seemingly nowhere, a large figure appeared. He looked like he was just under six feet tall, broad shouldered and built like a scrapper. I recognized him before he even turned towards me.

It was Bryan.

Next Chapter: Asleep to Awakening

_As previously mentioning the next chapter is more of a second part to this one. The perspectives won't change quite as much, but when it's up you'll probably note that the theme song for the next chapter is the same as this chapter. Normally chapters will only share themes when they are the "vital to the overall theme" chapters I mentioned, which all have "Layla" as a theme song. In this special case though, they share a theme because they were originally intended as one chapter. As you might guess from the title, Bryan's getting his powers a little early.;). Oh and if you're curious as to what Bryan was about to call Yukiko back at his door, he almost called her 'hime-san', 'hime' being the term for princess. The exact reason for him nearly doing that becomes clear later, around the time Yukiko appears on the Midnight Channel._


	6. Chapter 5, The Second and Better One

Author's Note: Yeah, one or two of you might be confused, as a Chapter Five had already been posted, but now it's here again. Some of you may have seen the notification for a new chapter, but there wasn't one there when you checked. I'm sorry, but I took the original version of this chapter down after reading it over repeatedly. I realized that I never should have even published it. It was too fast-moving, too confusing to anyone other than me, and a bit tacky. While I'm not going to fall into the same mistake as I did with the original version of this story and start writing to please people, I feel obligated to put out a certain level of quality. The handful of loyal readers that I have all have expectations. They want to read a good fic written by a guy who enjoys writing it and is satisfied with what he's putting out. Once I put it out there and my surge of publishing enthusiasm had died down, I wasn't satisfied at all. In fact I spent the entire night kicking myself because I hated it so much. Here and now I swear to maintain a higher level of constraint in my excitement, and only publish when I am certain the chapter is as good as it can be. On another note, I'd appreciate more reviews of the last two chapters, as I was trying out a new style of writing. Not a huge change, but I wanted to give my social interactions a bit more punch to them and while I like it, I'd still like to get some opinions on it. Lastly, as an attempt at making up for that crappy chapter incident, I'm working on a little something for my fans to make it up to them. It may take a bit, but I'll let you know when it's ready.

Chapter Five: Asleep to Awakening

I fell for only a moment, but something was familiar about that sensation. It wasn't possible that I had gone into a TV fully before, so I was understandably a bit confused at the familiarity I was feeling. When I appeared in that room with the two versions of Ms. Yamano, it was like I had simply stepped in. They didn't seem to notice me, and the crying one didn't make motions to attack her counterpart, so I took a quick look around.

There were posters of a woman, some kind of singer. Given the fact the poster showed her in a kimono, she must have be a singer of traditional Japanese songs. Most of the faces had been clawed off though. I spotted a lot of papers on the floor, some I could tell were script pages based on the format, others looked like letters. I couldn't read any of them, thanks to both the distance and the fact I sucked at reading Japanese lettering. The room itself was fairly modern looking, not her room at the inn at all. It was clearing a hotel though, the trashcan was right next to the bed. Besides the fact most homes in Japan use mats called futons, the only places that put trashcans near beds are in rooms were people use a lot of condoms. I could tell that we were in fact in some short of nightmare world, as the door out was chained shut.I walked calmly around, still unnoticed despite my size, listening for any signs the exchange was escalating. The two seemed at an impasse, so a little recon couldn't hurt.

I couldn't help but note that the way in wasn't going to be the way out, as there was curiously no opening on the side we were trapped on. Made sense though, if there was an easy way out she would have taken it. The room didn't have any signs of long term use, though the extra trash can hadn't been changed, show signs the place had been inhabited for at least two days. There was a strange something about the color palette in the room that made it look detached from reality, a trait that extended to the trash in the can. A quick test revealed I couldn't move any of the garbage. My eyes swept to the posters on the walls, and I tried to imagine what it was like when the faces were all there, why they were ripped out.

The only explanation was that it must have been the politician's wife. Her pictures gazing from everywhere, looking to the center of the room, no...to the person there it would seem the eyes were glaring at the bed that was centered on the wall opposite where I was standing. It was clear to a sharp and reasonable mind that the room I stood in was a construction of Mayumi Yamano's troubled mind. Her guilt was a foul paint for the walls, the ripping of faces full of both hate of herself and of the woman. One of those versions of her was her shadow, a manifestation of her dark side and weakness. Carl Jung would be having an orgasm at this kind of opportunity. Freud would likely blame someone's mother and claim incestuous urges were somehow involved, but the neuroses of that particular father of modern psychology were irrelevant at the moment.

"Waiting for that prince still?" I said suddenly.

Ms. Yamano, as irritated as she was startled, turned and readied her barbed tongue, her words were harsh but weighted down by the fear and sorrow she was gradually loosing her ability to hide, "Who are you? Did you put me here?"

"So someone put you in here? Makes sense. Why would anyone willingly come to a place with no exit?"

She seemed a bit confused, "Well you seem to have." suddenly she recognized me, "You're that foreign exchange student from the inn that was getting all that worship."

"Is that what you were arguing with Yukiko about? Did I really get that much better treatment than you?"

He scowl melted briefly, "I...that's not my fault, the staff was supposed to bring me a pitcher of iced tea and they were too busy greeting you like the emperor of China of something!"

"So you complained and she started yelling at you?"

"What's with the questions? Did you do this or not? What is this place?"

I had to pry that mind open, I seemed to be distracting her and that was keeping the shadow occupied. Perhaps if I helped her accept her weakness, she could free herself, "I'm just trying to figure out what got you so riled up that you'd make Mrs. Amagi faint from stress." My tone wasn't accusatory, but it would be taken that way.

Her gaze became stern again, but her eyes looked down, she was trying to seemed angry but wasn't fooling me, she felt guilty, "That's...not my fault either...she was working too hard...she could have rested...I didn't demand...that much." The last part seemed to be a question directed inward.

"Bitch." A voice from nowhere snapped.

Ms. Yamano suddenly looked around again, face full of fury but eyes full of fright, "Not again."

Another voice gossiping maliciously, "That whore, sleeping her way to the top, she wasn't even happy with her bosses. I beat she jumped at the chance to hop in the sack with a politician!"  
Something about taunting voices seemed familiar, not the voices themselves, but the act itself. Regardless I acted like nothing was happening, and tried to keep her focused on me alone, "So you expect a lot?"

She was angry at me, full-fledged, "I deserve it! I'm a big time announcer!"

Her shadow curled into a ball and looked as if it were about to cry again, "I'm nothing."

Yamano whipped around to face it, "Stop being so weak while looking like me! I fought hard to get where I am!"

"No I didn't. I gave up."

"Shut up! I never gave up! All the things..."

A piece of the puzzle fell into place, I strode to the left side of the room, where the bed would be in between us, she looked at it reflexively when I moved past it. I felt strange, my sense of what was going on in that mind was unusually strong. I could sense weak points, things I could do to take her mind apart. Some part of me was tempted to use them, pick at just the right ones and destroy her completely. I knew what I was there for though, I was likely the only one that could hit the right switches and make her into the person she was supposed to be. I enjoyed that. Deep down maybe I enjoyed it too much. The power to make or break a life can be dangerously intoxicating.

The words came out, guided almost my instinct with only a nudge from my logic keeping it in on the right path, "Do you believe them? Do you think those voices are right?"

"Of course not! I'm not..."

The shadow cried out, "I'm a dirty, dirty whore!"

"NO! I'm not..."

"You made them think you were though. For years right? I wonder why this time is the only time it hurts so much?"

"How would you know?"

I fought back the urge to grin in amusement, though a part of me wanted to brag and laugh at how blind people were, "Not that hard to figure out. You're spilling the beans pretty effectively. I don't even need you to answer that question. I already figured out everything about you."

She scoffed, totally focused on the weird foreign guy she had never even met, "Really? Do tell."

I slowly strode around the end of the bed, "You're pretty typical really. No, more a combination of common aspects in an interesting combination. Stop me if I'm wrong..."

"College, the year doesn't really matter, you're majoring in journalism and you get okay grades, though you're damn sure you should be doing better. You have some female friends, but you don't trust them. After all, how can you trust people that don't trust you. They always thought you'd take their boyfriends. It wasn't right of them to blame you for their boyfriends giving you those looks. After all, every man looks at you that way. Even that teacher you know isn't grading your work right."

She froze, "How...?"

I didn't know where it was coming from, I was getting the same kind of information I had always gotten, body language, facial twitches, eye movement, and that intangible instinctual stuff. It was all running through my reasoning skills the same way, but the pieces I had gathered somehow made the image clearer. I'd always been able to read people I knew better a bit more clearly, but never like I was doing to her, "It wasn't your fault one of their boyfriends threw all that innuendo into that offer to tutor you. It wasn't you're fault when you got that F on that exam you're sure you deserved a perfect score on. It wasn't even your fault when that professor propositioned you. It was their fault. I was there fault when they didn't believe you. It was their fault you barely passed and your grades made it impossible for you to be taken seriously as a journalist. Not that you would have been anyway. No one every takes you seriously."

"Stop it!" she yelled on the verge of tears.

The voices saw a chance to strike, "Slut! I wonder how she even got that interview in the first place." then a different one, "The politician is no different from any other guy, all too eager to get in some girl's pants at the first sign he could. And she gave it up! She didn't even care he was married!"

Ms. Yamano fell to her knees suddenly, "It wasn't like that..."

Suddenly the shadow stood, "Let the ungrateful oinkers think that! All I had to do to get where I am! All the quality work I did and it was never good enough for anyone! Well maybe they can't be good enough either! Maybe they're beneath ME! They don't work this hard after all." It paused, "They don't have to work this hard..."

"Shut up!"

I moved between her and the shadow, "It didn't stop did it? Not even the day of that interview. There was that ray of hope though. He took you seriously didn't he?"

Yamano looked at the ground with a sad expression on her face, "He looked so lonely, so tired. I wondered how a guy with a beautiful wife could look that way."

"So you couldn't help asking him."

She looked at me, "We went to dinner, neither of us even asked the other, we just ended up thee as we were talking. It was totally innocent."

"That time."

"I didn't even remember giving him my number at first, but I was glad he called. He wasn't like the rest of the people I knew. He talked and I listened, he'd listen when I talked." She laughed, "He was like the opposite side of a coin, every day of his life people taking him too seriously, expecting so much from him." She suddenly looked very sad.

"He completed you didn't he? He was the one person you were every nice to after becoming a reporter. When you realized that there was no turning back. He made you realize you had given up and that you could be who you wanted to be."

The shadow interrupted, "Then he betrayed us! Ran off! He was lying the whole time!"

Something dawned on me, it made sense so I went with it, "The affair was discovered the first time you actually had sex wasn't it. In a room just like this one." I suddenly understood the dress that had been discarded in her closet. She'd probably had a guest, got out that dress thinking it was him, and looked out the window. Whoever it was, it hadn't been him. The dress was then thrown down in fury, I'd been right, "You haven't seen him since."

The shadow was furious, "He didn't love me! He used me! The one time I actually trusted someone, and he makes me into what I was pretending to be. Now I'm just a slut! I'm the whore that sleeps around to get ahead! Flirting be damned I'll just let you..."

"Shut up!" Ms. Yamano suddenly stood up and slapped the hell out of her shadow, so hard in fact I was surprised it only left a red mark and not a rip in the space/time continuum, "Just die! I'm nothing like you! I'm not a whore!"

It looked her straight in the eyes, enjoying the pain, "But my precious empress, I am you!"

I noticed abject fury cross her face at the mere mention of 'empress', "You're not me!"

She went to slap the shadow again, only to be backhanded across the room, My eyes suddenly noted a few wisps of fog vanishing. For some reason I remember that a fog, one that in retrospect seemed very similar to the one leaving the air outside, had been rolling into Inaba not long before.

My attention suddenly snapped back to the shadow Yamano, around which a swarm of dark shapes was forming. One by one it absorbed each of them, quickly becoming something else, "Yes, I not you anymore. You should die, die and be forgotten! Fade to nothing like you so desire! I am a Shadow, the true self."

What had once looked like Ms. Yamano now took on a form like a beautiful golden woman, statuesque like an award show trophy. Instead of a glorious sphere of a achievement, it buckled beneath the weight of a writhing ball made of wanting hands that clawed at her. It stood poised to charge at the defenseless announcer, but everything seemed to have stopped. Except for me, the whole world was frozen in place.

I blinked, finding myself in a strange room the color of velvet. I remembered it suddenly, as if it had never been forgotten. I noticed that unlike the last time, a violin case was next to Margaret on the stage, and her hand moved across it as if she longed to free it, but she didn't, not did she speak.

I spotted Igor in the same spot, sipping on the same drink, so I walked over. He grinned and motioned for me to sit. On the table was a layout of tarot cards, some of the cards in the spread had already been flipped over, "Last time I checked you were supposed to wait until I was around to tell my fortune." I took a seat.

"I haven't told any fortunes yet, those cards you see have already transpired. The tower, indicating catastrophe, the moon indicating a mystery laying itself upon you."

"The vanishing. Someone put her in there. Without me she'll die. Someone was trying to kill her."

Igor nodded, "The next card is the path you will choose to take from here and the immediate future. Do you remember our agreement?"

"I have to take responsibility for all my choices, meaning for the effect they'll have as well."

"You're tempting fate, changing futures, such things always come at a price." he tapped a card that laid diagonally beyond the next card in the spread, how far away it was in the future was unknowable, at least to me, "It is a fate that waited for a few of our previous guests and they failed to escape it, but they made the best they could of it."

"Let me guess, Death?" that card was far too close to the present for my taste. I could count the number of cards between them without even using all my fingers.

Igor moved on without confirming my theory, "I trust you know your power, the one I spoke of before?"

"Yes."

"Good. It is a power that bridges gaps, binds people together. Lack of it tears them apart. Due to its very nature it grows as you form bonds with others. Have you never wondered why with such a gift you never made any of these bonds?"

I didn't answer. We both knew the answer to that.

"Regardless, I trust you have made your decision?"

I stood, flipping the next card over myself, "I have."  
Igor smiled, the card depicted a man hanging upside down by one foot, "The Hanged Man, one meaning of this arcana is one's inability to act against one's situation, it is the present for many, including you. But in the current sense it means-"

"A willingness for self-sacrifice. It's also known by some as the Dying God, one with a perspective inaccessible to others. It can mean lots of things based on it relations with other arcana in the spread."

"You've studied fortune-telling, I see."

"You're looking at a guy with too much free-time." I said simply, "What's the next card? Knowing the present is useless."

"Remember." He tapped the face down Death card, "The choices you make have a price, nothing can predict those for certain." He pointed to his right, to a door that was mostly covered by a pull down blind, which shot up suddenly, revealing just beyond it was the frozen scene I had left, "Don't you have a more pressing matter to attend to?"

He was right, I had made the decision to help at any cost, and knowing the next card wasn't going to change that. I made my way quickly to the door, but Igor called to me, "Wait, take this." he tossed me a card. On closer examination it was plain purple, the same velvet color as the room, except for a black strip on the back, like one of those access cards to get into a VIP room in those clubs you see on TV, "The next time you come here, it will be by your own power, you will have signed your contract by then and awakened to your power."

"See you then."

Stepping through the door, a found myself back in the room with Ms. Yamano and her shadow, the card was gone, but that was the least of my concerns. The shadow was charging. Without hesitation I stepped in its path and weighed my options. If I tripped it wrong the weight on its back might strike down the person I was trying to save. If I was too careful, I wouldn't be able to trip it at all. I made the necessary move, grabbing the large metallic forearm that was nearest to me and kicked its knee. Instead of letting it fall forward I pulled on the thing's arm, using enough strength to redirect the falling momentum. That momentum carried the large creature over me as I ducked, the leverage from my body guiding the path of the monster into the wall. I quickly whipped around and took on a loose combat stance. There was no way I could defeat the thing, but I knew by watching it suffer underneath that weighty burden it carried that I stood a chance of making it defeat itself. Throws, redirection, and using its own handicap were all I could do.

Yamano started to get up, her body language and the situation making it clear that she was about to take shelter behind me, something I didn't need. I couldn't blame her, it was a natural reaction for someone who knew nothing about combat, she didn't know what I was doing, "Stay there." I said firmly and she obeyed.

I noted that the window was behind me, if I failed to counter I'd be slammed through it. If I countered, the beast was too large to go through it. Speaking of which, the thing managed to get up again while I was thinking and charged me. I threw myself to the right and left my shin in the way of the shadow's leading leg, the using the attacking arm to balance myself I kicked the back of the knee again with my free leg. I let go and fell to the ground but the shadow was sent headfirst into the window.

I was to my feet easily, it struggled. I thanked heaven for that. If the thing were any larger or weren't so encumbered I would stand no chance against it. My thoughts on that were broken up by something big banging on the door, and I suddenly fell to one knee. So much pain! None of it my own. I could sense it all, beating at the door, trying to get in and consume us. Shadows, hundreds of them, too many to ever fight. I had to fight though, had to find the strength for somewhere. I would just have to figure something out.

"Are you okay?" Ms. Yamano asked, her face told me she wanted to come over and check on me but her shadow was getting up again.

"I wonder, if I hadn't come here. What would the course of events been like? I don't mind dying like this at all. But I have to wonder."

"I'd have died a bit earlier of course. Nothing big, you wasted your time I think."

"I understand your pain."

"Yeah I know." She was torn between smiling and crying.

"Looking at you I think you might have done something stupid."

She laughed somewhat morbidly and motioned to a scarf on the floor tied to a rope, "That was there when I got here. I think I might have tried using it. Seems poetic, dying using the scarf he gave me."

"You're stupid. Try to think from his perspective." I looked back at her shadow, it was stuck in the window after all, but the shadows outside would be coming in an second, "Get in the back of the closet over there. Now."

She obeyed, "What about you?"

I stood in the path the shadows would have to take to get to her, which, with the bed in the way, her shadow would have to get by me as well, "I'm gonna stall them as long as I can. The second that thing gets free and runs at me, make for the window. I noticed a narrow ledge you can escape on."

"Why are you doing this?"

"I don't have anyone who loves me waiting."

"Neither do I!"

"Idiot." I smiled, then repeated, "Try to think of things from his side."

She thought about it, I could tell.

"He is staying away for your sake you idiot."

She started crying and in that moment her shadow broke free and glared angrily at me, I just smiled, "You were blinded by your own baggage. Lots of people are. I'm doing this because I think you have the chance to see clearly for once." I pointed at the thing shifting its weight, getting ready to do something. It wasn't going to keep falling for the same trick, "Look your darkness in the face. It's part of you, but that doesn't mean it's all of you."

"That's a part of me." she'd meant it to be a question, but she already knew the answer.

Something caught my eye and I looked down, an outline of the card I had seen representing the present, the Hanged Man, was glowing bright blue in the flesh of my palm. It burned. That burned flowed into the veins of my left hand, filling every path and carrying forth into my forearm.

"I am thou..." a voice in my head coincided with the glowing fluid coursing its way to my shoulder.

"Thou art I..." into my heart. I could feel some kind of power entering me.

Yamano said something, I couldn't hear her. All I heard was, "The time has come..."

My heart pumped the power through the rest of my chest, I winced in discomfort, my eyes cramming themselves shut as the power entered them, entered my other limbs, coursed into every part of my brain. My senses felt sharper, I could sense power, not only in myself but welling up in Ms. Yamano as well and I knew the next words the voice was going to say before it spoke them.

I watched her shadow stumble and fall, turning into a little girl with golden skin and a warm smile, hugging what had been her burden. The wanting mass of hands had become a strangely round and large teddy bear dressed in somewhat clown-like garb.

I spoke the voice's words aloud, "Open thine eyes and call forth the power within!"

Her mouth moved almost on its own, her eyes glazed over with total clarity, "Per-so-NA!"

The girl vanished, only to appear again in a shower of blue shards from Mayumi-san's back. Floating there with fairy wings and a tiara, towing her massive stuffed friend. The door gave way and a torrent of dark figures, to numerous to get a good look at any single one, burst through. It was a horrible sight as some clawed their way through the swarm, devouring other shadows in their path just to get a chance at us. Mayumi-san had gained the mask that would empower her to face the world, and the bond formed from me helping to awaken that power within her filled me with a rush of strength.

"GO! Toshinomiya-Aiko!"

The fairy princess dashed over my head and into the fray, batting shadows aside with here large while giggling playfully. My veins still glowing with power I grabbed an attacking shadow with one hand and drove it into the wall, crushing the formless mass. It died nearly instantly and I was too caught up in the rush to noticed I was absorbing it through my palm. I simply pounded the vanishing corpse into the face of another. Feeling something come over me, as if some desire that was not my own had entered me. The desire to for forgiveness for doing something wrong. I felt the weakness of someone. The slain shadow had been a fragment of someone's mind.

I channeled that will towards my palm almost instinctively, unleashing that pure and good desire of that person upon the darkness of others. A mass of the shadows were driven back by a rush of ice and cold. It wasn't enough. Their were too many. I couldn't stop them all, and Mayumi-san's persona was getting overwhelmed, crying with sorrow as its teddy bear was consumed by the horde. The darkness filled the room completely soon after and I was driven down, the formless masses around me tearing at me.

"Freak!"

"He's a freak!"

"MONSTER!"  
"What's up with that guy?"

"Normal people aren't like that!"

They were mocking me. The teasing nearly drowning out a woman's screams. They wouldn't shut up. They wouldn't let me up! I couldn't do anything to save her!"

"I thought I told you to clean your room!"

Tears came to my eyes, "No! No! Stop! STOP! I won't let you!"

There was a pounding on the door and a woke up in a place I was pretty sure I had not fallen asleep in. I was sweating like a pig, safe and sound in my futon back at the inn. I was even in my pajamas.

The person knocked again, the voice was warm and familiar, but seemed so far away, odd since she right outside the door. Yukiko spoke up, "Neir-san! It's time for breakfast. Let's not be late on the first day of school!"

"I'll be right down."

I forced myself to stand and happened to look at the hamper in the corner. There were the jeans I'd been wearing. Struggling to recall how I'd ended up in my room or confirm my own sense of reality was still intact, I lumbered over to them and searched them for any clue. In the left pocket I found it. A velvet colored card key.

Next Chapter: A Sense of Failure

There, I feel better now about this and I hope you folks enjoyed the re-do of this chapter. Anyone in Japan might already know this, but I based the name of Mayumi Yamano's persona on the Japanese princess born into the royal family back in 2001. Her name is based in an old saying: "A person who loves others will be loved by others, and a person who respects others will always be respected by others." I thought it fit.


	7. Chapter 6

_A/N: A recent comment from a reader claimed I was painting Bryan in a bit too attractive a light. Keep it mind, if I recall correctly, he described himself as very neutral looking. Also, in regard to Yukiko's intense reaction to his appearance is in part due to the fact that in this section of the game she was hoping for a prince to come save her from her fate. Naturally she'd involuntarily try to see this prince in the guy that might just whisk her away to a far off land when he left (she even remarked on this herself). Most characters see him as pretty neutral as far as looks go and such a case is actually in this chapter when he meets Chie. The extreme things, like his intense eyes, tenancy to look like he's analyzing you, and weird mannerisms, are actually that extreme-looking if you are the sort to notice those things. Also him having a high intellect is pretty much required in a mystery story. When Naoto comes in, she'll be painted as being a generally better detective than him with the exception of things involving the emotional workings of the mind._

Chapter Six: A Sense of Contentment.

In place somewhere between mind and matter, a place that is neither dream nor reality, a man in a well pressed suit takes another long sip of his drink and looks down to the table of cards in front of him. He senses the present fate of his current guest unfurling, the rise of the Dying God. The Hanged Man, an arcana of profound but veiled significance. Equal opportunity for victory and defeat awaited the guest. His unique power could just as easily lead him on a path of destruction. He looked down, flipping a card over with his mind. This Hanged Man had manifested the first signs of its power alongside an Empress, and so fate would have it, the Empress was the next card in the spread. Though a maternal and caring aspect, when appearing with the Hanged Man it predicted desire in the near future. That desire could destroy, or create. Such a future, balanced on the edge of a knife, seemed to always await his guests.

He smiled, this would be interesting.

_Naoto's Perspective_

Dear Naoto-chan,

Right know your getting pissed off at me using the "-chan" honorific again, but you know very well that's why I do it. I can't help but wonder what you look like when you get annoyed. I bet it's a pretty controlled expression, but with a glare that could bur through steel. Well, I'll just have to find something to annoy you in just the right way to break that control by the time we meet. I'm pretty sure if fate has such an event in store for us it will happen, but I have the sense to know you don't want it to. After all, why keep a pen pal from such a boring and remote area unless you never planned to meet them?

Don't worry, I'm fine with that. I've said many times in my letters that I'm happy just being the person you feel comfortable talking to. If I can lighten the burden of a deserving person, then that's plenty to keep me happy. It's what I do really. Hot that I'm a therapist or anything. Though maybe I should consider a job in that field. They say that if you love your job then you'll never work a day in your life. Try to keep that in mind.

You never told me what that part-time job was, but a part of me (maybe the part that reads too many Japanese comics) imagines you as a master sleuth. You have the insight for it after all. A ridiculous thought though. It'd be really cool if you were a teen detective and all that, but I imagine it'd been hard to get taken seriously in that job. Too bad.

There I go off on another tangent, and this time not even due to metaphors...analogies, whichever. Do you know which? I should pay more attention in English class I guess.

Back on topic, I realized my last letter might have been a bit confusing, I forgot I didn't mention the exam to get into that exchange program before telling you I'd passed. Well, I didn't even sign up for it, so it didn't really matter much to me until I'd gotten the results. A chance to study abroad, can you believe it? In Japan of all places too? What a coincidence. Maybe it's fate telling me to march into your house and kick in the door, whisking you off to a chapel or something. HA! HA! HA! Not that I'd mind, there's a lot worse marriage prospects, but I'm only kidding. Get that look off your face Naoto-chan. Hmmm...I wonder if that one cracked that control you probably have. But like I said earlier, you don't want to meet, and I don't particularly mind either way so I won't be stopping by unless you've emailed me before I hop onto the train to Inaba.

I'm writing this on the long flight to Japan by the way. 12 whole hours, and that's after a 3 hour flight to Hawaii for a transfer. If I sound a bit more neurotic than normal it's because I'm writing to keep my mind off being thousands of feet in the air over 12,000+ feet (miles? I forget. Darn boring Geography teacher) deep water. Have I ever mentioned I hate heights and swimming? Ha ha, that's not funny is it? I get dizzy on short ladders for crying out loud! So I'll just keep writing for a bit while cursing the fact the ticket they gave me was a window seat and they wouldn't let me change. Ha! Ha! HELP! Ha! Ha!

So, just in case we don't meet up, I got my new address in and put it on the envelope. I'd like to hear how you've been doing. Did your grandfather get back okay from that trip? When's the next one due? I hope my being in the country doesn't impact our friendship, as I would feel like my accepting this chance to study abroad was letting you down. Let me know if you're uncomfortable, and I'll write back complaining that you need too much space. Ha! Ha! Ha! I'm not kidding.

Hugs and Snuffles,

Bryan Neir

P.S.: Don't ask me what snuffles are, I don't know. Also did I mention that I HATE FLYING! GAH! Now if you'll excuse me I have nothing more to write about so I'm gonna resume screaming in terror.

P.S. #2: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! LET ME OFF THE PLAAANE!!! AHHHH!!!

I frowned, such a silly person sometimes, but the letter I had received just moments before from my longtime pen pal put some worries to rest. Mind you it brought doubts into my mind as to how much he really meant it, but I had no choice but to accept the fact he wasn't going to try and meet me. What kind of person was fine with just being a shoulder to cry on without expecting anything, not even love? After worrying about it far too much on the day of his arrival in the country, what little relief the letter brought was welcome. He hadn't come that day, and had probably dropped the disorganized letter into the mailbox right before jumping onto the train. Reading it over again with a more relaxed mind, I couldn't help but smile. Normally he was pretty serious, only throwing in the occasional joke making fun of odd things about society. It was amusing to see a weak point in a person that otherwise seemed like a solid and infallible individual. Even more amusing was the fact he still had me pegged with startling accuracy, even when terrified. He had gotten to know me so well in one year of correspondence.

On that thought, I started writing my reply.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

"So, will you be coming back right after school?"

"Yes, Father, I'll be back and getting to work straight away." I poked at the eggs on my plate, too deep in thought to have much of an appetite.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a frown of his face, "You know what? You can be a bit late, Miku-san and I can handle things around here for a bit. You don't need to push yourself. Take the time to enjoy your first day of school. Let Bryan-san know he can be late too. I'm sure he wants to look around town at some point. Hahaha!"

"Where is Neir-san I wonder? He said he'd be right down." he was running late, though I got the feeling someone was lurking around.

"Sorry." the very person in question strode in, dressed in the school uniform that had been sent over for him, "I woke up in a bit of a cold sweat do I had to shower."

"Bad dreams?" father wondered.

"Nothing to dwell on, I always have bad dreams on the first day in a new bed. Plus the climate change kind of threw my system a bit."

"Yukiko, something wrong?" my dad was looking at me strange and I quickly took a bite of my meal. I had noticed too late that'd I'd been staring at Bryan, I mean Neir-san.

"No, I'm just a bit sleepy."

I glanced his way again and was glad that he chose that moment to stop looking at me and start eating. Those gray-blue eyes were far too intense. He even looked like he was studying his food. What had got me staring though was the school uniform. For every bit his work kimono looked wrong on him, that uniform looked right. His broad shoulders fit well into the jacket, making it look more like a high paid salaryman's blazer than a simple dress jacket. He even buttoned it up the same way. The gray seams seemed to outline ever distinct aspect of his build and combined with the deep gray color of the jacket and paints to draw out those eyes of his. It was just a school uniform, but he cleaned up so well he might as well have been in an expensive suit. My thoughts wandered back to that glimpse of him I'd seen on that phantom program. Did seeing him on there mean he was my soul-mate?

"What's up? The two of you seem very deep in thought this morning? If it's Mrs. Amagi's condition, that's nothing to be too worried about." my father was looking at both of us in turn. Neither of us had said a word in several minutes.

Neir-san blinked twice and flashed a hollow smile, "Sorry, I was thinking about something else. Come to think of it. Is that lady that was giving you all that trouble to begin with still not back?"

Father nodded, "Haven't seen her. Fortunately she paid for a month in advance, but still. She shouldn't just vanish without saying anything like that."

Neir-san seemed to be thinking hard about something, "Miku-san said she didn't even take anything with her. That's weird."

"Maybe that lover of hers whisked her away. Good riddance."

That seemed to annoy Neir-san for some reason, "I have to wonder what could make a person like that. Every bad trait has to have a source. After what happened with Ms. Amagi though, I'd be hard-pressed to be kind to the woman though." he stood, and bowed slightly to no one in particular, as he was probably not certain who made the food, "Thank you for the meal. It wasn't necessary though."

"Oh come on, you're part of the family while you're here so enjoy yourself."

Neir-san's face seemed to go reflexively cold, but he forced a smile, "Thank you, but I asked to work to pay my way because I don't expect such treatment." he bowed again, "Next time, I'll cook for the family."

I stood up quickly as I noticed it was creeping every closer to the time we had to meet the city bus, "Let's go, Neir-san, we need to be going."

He nodded and I grabbed my bag from the back of my chair.

Father gave a little wave, "Don't forget your umbrellas, it's raining out."

"Thanks, father." I grabbed my umbrella, passed Neir-san his, and we were off.

Alone on the road to the bus stop. Neir-san wasn't carrying anything but his umbrella, as they hadn't sent over any textbooks for him. We walked in silence as he seemed to slip back into his thoughts again, which suited me just fine. I wasn't sure what to talk about anyway.

We were standing near the bus stop bench and waiting for our ride when he broke the silence, "I had a troubling dream last night."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Can I ask you something?" he didn't look at me, but his brow was furrowed in thought.

"Sure." I replied, my curiosity peeked.

"If you tried to save someone's life, but only managed to save their soul before they died, should you be sad? Or should you be happy that you at least helped them have peace?"

"That must have been some dream." I noted with an amused expression that was apparently inappropriate, he looked at me for an answer and I wasn't sure I had one, "It depends on your view of the afterlife I guess. I imagine giving them peace in their death can be good enough if it has to be. Try to imagine what their death would be like if they were left like hey were."

"I imagine that would be a terrible way to end your life, with lots of regrets." his expression relaxed a little, but it was a problem that he would likely be mulling on for a while.

"So who were you trying to save?"

Suddenly the bus came and we hurried on out of the rain.

_Bryan's Perspective_

There were a good many seats on the bus, so I let Yukiko lead the way to a seat. She apparently liked sitting in the back of the bus, which was fine. I liked sitting back there too. It was usually pretty populated, at least on American school buses, but you could easily vanish. If you didn't say anything, no one bothered looking at you. The very back seat was occupied, so she took the next, sitting as far against the window as she could so I would have plenty of room to sit. I was about to comment on all the room, but I suddenly recognized the people on the back seat. A familiar old lady, who was tending to a small boy. Like last time, there nationality was unclear, their faces neutral, and the boy bore a smile that was every bit as disturbing as the woman's expression was plain. How could that smile exist on a face that emotionless? It made no sense. There was something very wrong about those people.

"Something wrong, Neir-san?" Yukiko asked, looking concerned. I could imagine by expression wasn't exactly a comfortable looking one.

I snapped out of it and sat down, "Yeah fine, I just got a bit dizzy when to bus started rolling. You'd think I'd be used to that sensation."

She smiled, "So about that dream..."

"Don't worry about it, Taishou-sama." I grinned, avoiding giving more information than I wanted to, "It's like I always say. If something bothers you, either do something about it or don't dwell on it. While doing something would be nice, I can't. So why worry?"

I looked into the large rear view mirror at the front of the bus to make sure I hadn't imagined the pair and was taken aback, though I made sure my face didn't show it. The boy and woman were gone, replaced by an older man with a cane, similar clothes, and the same smile. The old woman was still old, but younger. When I blinked, they were gone entirely. That was about all I could take. I was one step closer to being convinced I was bat-shit insane. My hand went to my pocket to touch the velvet colored card key there. It was the only thing I had to tell me I still had some grasp on my sanity.

"I suppose that's one way to look at things." Yukiko seemed a little disappointed at something, though I couldn't tell what. She was doing a remarkable job of not letting me know what was going on in her head, but she probably wasn't even doing it deliberately. After all she didn't know I could do that, "By the way, we'll be meeting my friend Chie at the bus stop. She lives right near it so I usually walk with her the rest of the way to school."

"Oh, well, I'll be sure to be shy and uncomfortable like I normally am." I joked.

Yukiko looked confused for a moment, like she wasn't sure what the heck I was talking about, then something dawned on her. It was then that it finally occurred to me that I had been shy and uncomfortable to everyone _but_ her. Sure our meeting had been awkward, but I'd talked pretty openly. We were both probably wondering about that, though it likely struck me harder than her. I should have found it odd that my early sadness about seemingly failing Mayumi-san had left almost the very moment I talked to Yukiko about it. It would still bother me, but Yukiko's opinion had somehow brought me to a point that I could feel somewhat content. In fact, sitting there I kept forgetting everything that was on my mind and just...existed. To just exist...you can't imagine what that's like for me. Just tuning out everything else around me, all except for me and her talking.

Looking at her, I couldn't settle in though. There was something wrong that I couldn't put my finger on. She seemed so...something...tired maybe? She wasn't revealing anything. That open book had closed again. I wanted to pry, but had the sense to know it wasn't my place. I'd just end up either making things worse or, god forbid, she'd think I was some kind of weirdo. I looked down, the gap between us on the seat could be measured in inches, but seemed enormous.

Yukiko broke into the vast and unbearably awkward silence that had been the most uncomfortable two seconds of my entire life, "She's great. We've been friends since I was really little, always there to give me motivation. She's got so much more energy than me."

"Sounds like you really get along well."

"Of course, she's my best friend." she smiled, a beautiful smile, but it seemed smaller than it should be.

Not really sure what to say at all, I just went with, "I'm sure the three of us will get along great."

A few minutes later the bus stopped in what looked like a shopping district, Yukiko moved to stand up, so I got up and stepped back to let her go first. On my way out I saw a girl outside spot Yukiko and then look at me. Of course it was Chie, it wasn't hard to figure that out. I wasn't pleased that she wasn't as calm about my arrival as the Amagi family. She was going to be one of those country folk with a hundred questions for the foreign transfer student. I took the chance to learn her appearance. She was just a little shorter than Yukiko, with short brownish blond hair and a competitive smile. She was wearing a green running jacket and the skirt that was part of the school uniform for girls. She carried herself like a fitness fanatic and I could tell she could fight a bit. A real tom boy type, she was probably more shapely than that jacket let on, or than she likely believed herself to be. We'd get along pretty good after my novelty wore off I was sure, but there was no telling really. I might have a good sense of empathy, but that doesn't mean I'm a mind reader.

It dawned to me I had only been looking at Yukiko's face, and she wasn't looking my direction, so I took the chance to look at the rest of her, more for reference than anything sexual. Though those stockings and dress shoes did have a certain measure of appeal to them, they went nicely with the skirt and her figure seemed to make the look work supremely well. A more lecherous eye would have lingered on the shapely contours of her hips and butt, which were...um....shapely and very much contouring, but my eyes moved up the small of her back along her smooth features and to her shoulders. Those were nice shoulders, as well balanced and elegant as the rest of her. Is it weird that I like shoulders? He long, likely silky hair danced about as she walked held out of her face by a red headband that matched the sweater she was wearing. Red and black suited her skin tone, which was a little lighter than most, but not pasty enough to be called pale. It was a good balanced tone. Something seemed familiar about the tone of red...sure red and black were all over the high school back home, but that shade seemed familiar for a different reason.

I was careful to hide my quick examination, and I'm sure she didn't notice, but the fact I'd studied her too closely made me uncomfortable enough for the both of us. I quickly put it behind me though when I stepped of the bus and braced myself for the inevitable curiosity fueled perkiness that was to come.

Chie walked over to meet us and that smiled got a little wider, "Hey, Yukiko. We're running a bit late, we should get going." she pointed to me, "This must be the exchange student. Bryan Neir right? Everyone's been talking about you coming. In a small town like this you're big news."

"Sorry we're late, Chie, and yes. This is Neir-san. He arrived the day before yesterday."

"Pleased to meet you." I put on a small smile of my own and habitually avoided eye contact.

I must have avoided it too much, because she called me out on it, bending over slightly to look me in the face, her grin suddenly more mischievous, "Oh, we got a shy one here. You must be downright crippled around Yukiko then."

"Chie! Cut it out!" Yukiko frowned.

"Sorry, you're just too easy to tease. I'll be nice." she stood up straight and looked back at me, "I don't mean anything by it."

"It's okay, it could be worse."

"Ah so you do speak Japanese!"

We started towards the school at a fairly brisk but still casual pace, "Yeah, I've always enjoyed the literature and culture. Thought the writing system is hard as heck, the spoken form is a lot easier than Spanish."

"You know Spanish?"

"No. That's my point."

Chie laughed a little at that, "Well you speak our language pretty well. To be honest, when I heard you were from the south I was expecting some cowboy boots and a goofy accent."

"Chie! That's rude!" Yukiko chimed in.

I couldn't help but laugh, I slipped to English and let my accent seep in, "Ah more prefah haking boots. Butah do havan accent whenah let it happen."

They both stopped and gave me the strangest look, Chie thought it was hilarious, "Oh my god! I didn't understand a word of that! I'm sorry for laughing!"

Back to Japanese, finding it strange that Yukiko hadn't laughed, "That's fine. I imagine southern speech is a bit goofy sounding. I moved around a lot when I was little, so I have pretty good control over my accent usually. Plus, only farmers wear cowboy boots these days."

We passed the riverbed not long afterward, and I gazed down a hill to an embankment that would make a great spot for reading. Chie looked around and frowned, "There really isn't a lot here is there? Well, I think we have something from the mountains that's pretty famous, like dye or something. Oh and the Amagi Inn! It's the pride of Inaba. It's always in magazines and stuff as a hidden treasure."

Yukiko seemed embarrassed, "It's just an old inn."

"You don't need to be so humble about it." I smiled, "Anyway the town I come from is actually smaller than this, so I'm perfectly comfortable with it."

"Lucky you." for some reason, Yukiko was still frowning.

Chie got that mischievous grin again, "So Bryan-san, be honest. You think Yukiko's cute right?"

For a split second I was worried she'd spotted me looking at Yukiko earlier, but that didn't seem to be the case, "Of course. She looks great in a kimono too."

Yukiko blushed redder than I'd seen anyone blush before. It would have been cute, but underneath was a barely detectable twang of emotional pain.

Chie beamed as if she had felled a mighty foe, "I knew it! Yukiko's really popular at school, but she's never even had a boyfriend, can you believe it."

"Chie stop. Don't believe her. I mean don't believe that I'm really popular or that I've never had a boyfriend....I mean I don't need a boyfriend!"

Suddenly, a guy on a bike raced by, trying to keep control while holding an umbrella, "Wha-o-oa!"

It wasn't pretty. Seeing the wreck Chie started over to him and we followed without a word, "Yosuke! You alright?"

I say not, considering that he'd fallen onto the bar on the bike and what part of his anatomy has was clutching. He forced himself to stand upright, but his voice still cracked, "Ugh...that smarts!" he turned, still in pain, "Satonaka-san! Yukiko-san! What are you doing here?"

"Checking on you, you blockhead!" She punched his arm, making it clear why he;d only used last name when referring to her, "Who rides a bike with one hand full? In the rain? Walk next time!"

"Ow! Okay, I'm sorry! I'll be more careful!"

I handed him his umbrella, "At least there's not gonna be scars. I knew a guy who scared up and broke his knee after a crash like that. By the way, I'm Bryan Neir, the exchange student. I wish we could have met under less painful circumstances."

"Me too." He winced, "I'm Yosuke Hanamura. I-"

"My Trial of the Dragon!" Chie had picked up a DVD case off the ground that apparently Yosuke had dropped, the disc was cracked, "It's ruined!"

Yosuke bowed low, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I'll replace it!"

I stepped up, "It was an accident. She can have my copy. I don't watch it anymore."

Chie looked at me funny, "You have it? It's a really obscure movie."

"Yeah, I'm a big kung-fu movie fan. I got it from a specialty store in Memphis. You ever see Rage of the Master?"

"Only 12 times!"

"Snake-Crane Fist?"

"I love that one!"

Yosuke collapsed at last from his gravest of wounds, "Ugh!"

After dragging Yosuke to his feet and helping along until he recovered, we somehow made it to school on time. I got a lot of looks, not only due to nationality and appearance, but because of rumors I was 'staying with Yukiko', who I later found out was the center of a lot of gossip. The homeroom teacher was a man named Mr. Morooka with impossibly greasy hair and even more incredibly crooked teeth. He stopped me on the way in and very condescendingly told me to wait at the front of the class to be introduced. He even talked slow and loud, as if I were deaf or mentally challenged. That and his dang teeth just made me want to beat his face in.

Once everyone had filed in, Morooka stood at his desk, "Now you degenerates, I want to start off by reminding you that this is a classroom. I won't have any skirt chasing or flirting with each other on my watch. Your studies should take priority over spreading the vile sludge you maggots call a gene pool around to each other." He motioned to me, "This loser wasn't welcome in the United States anymore, so they tossed him over here with the rest of their garbage. Girls, don't go fawning over him because he's foreign. This skinhead thug isn't worth your future."

Oh that was it, "Sir, I'll have you know that I am a pacifist, and have nothing to do with skinheads. Presuming I am a white supremacist due to my hair cut is racist in itself. This happens to be a popular style in my hometown among athletes." I heard some muttering so I addressed the class, "Hello, I'm Bryan Neir, from the United States. I'm here as an exchange student and I hope to learn a lot of what this country has to offer during my stay. If you wonder about my athlete comment, I played American football until an injury last year. My hobbies include writing, acting, reading, and studying various martial arts."

Chie raised her hand as Morooka was about to bite my head off, "Mr. Morooka, there's a free seat right here!"

"Oh right, hear that punk? You're sitting there." he grumbled, then went into a sermon that I tuned out while getting to my seat.

Chie leaned over. "Bad luck getting transferred to King Moron's class. Don't worry, most of us aren't racist like that."

I nodded, tuning out the muttering from other students that was about me, but not directed at me. After class was over an announcement called the teachers to a meeting and told the students to stay in the classrooms. Apparently something had happened, a fact made clear by the fact we'd been hearing sirens not long before. Some of the students were panicked, but my attention was drawn over to Yukiko who was dealing with some question from a fellow student.

She was sitting just diagonally across from me so I drew her attention, "What was that about?"

Yukiko frowned, "There's a rumor that the announcer involved in a recent scandal is staying at my family's inn. I couldn't discuss it of course."

"Right, good for you." the fact that people were talking about the announcer we something was going on with police made me squeamish. My fears seemed to be coming true.

Chie had been pacing but came up to Yukiko, "So Yukiko, how long do you think this'll take?"

"There's no telling."

Chie shrugged and looked at me with a frown, "This is one heck of a welcome to Nihon." she suddenly remembered something, "Oh, Yukiko, did you remember to try that thing I told you about?"

Yukiko suddenly froze, "Huh?"

"You know. Looking into the TV at midnight and you see your soul-mate?"

My turn to freeze. Looking into a TV...at midnight?

"Oh." she looked uncomfortable, "No....not yet. Sorry."

Was she lying? Had she really looked? What exactly had she seen? She couldn't have seen that battle, her reaction to me talking about that dream would have been different.

"Um...Neir-san." I turned to see Yosuke bowing to me, "Thank you for your help this morning. I swear I'll pay you back for replacing that DVD."

"Wait, no. I offered, it's okay." I stuttered a little. There were three people around I wasn't all that familiar with send everyone not talking about the incident was sneaking glances at me. I tried not to get overwhelmed, but that darn tenancy to shut down around large numbers was winning out.

"It wouldn't be right of me to let someone else pay off my debts."

I sat down and looked at my hands, "Okay, whatever. If you insist."

Chie scratched her head at my suddenly strange behavior and I felt Yukiko staring at me with an even more perplexed look, it was Chie that made the first statement though, thankfully not about my change in attitude though."Hey, we never got the chance to finish that talk we were having this morning. Want to grab something to eat on the way back?"

"Sure." I said.

Despite her earlier behavior, I could tell Chie wasn't a violent or taunting person at heart, just self-conscious, lashing out to assert her position because of her self-doubt. All three new friends we good people, they just needed a little help to get past the little hurdles in life. I could almost feel their troubles. Relatively small though they were, even little stumbles can send you flying off course. Maybe I could help. My innate knack for understanding the mind was a great asset in times like these.

Soon, they announced that we were allowed to leave, but were to go straight home, making sure we didn't get in the way of the police. A few students seemed shocked that something had really happened, but really the sirens earlier should have tipped them off. Yosuke had to go make sure his bike wasn't too damaged, but the rest of us decided to leave together and grab a bite at some department store called Junes. The smaller group was a bit of a relief. Adding to our luck, the rain seemed to have subsided.

At the front gate, a slightly creepy looking guy that looked like he was from another school walked up nervously, something about him weighed heavy on me, "You're Yuki, right?"

Yukiko suddenly got really nervous, "Y-yes, who are you? What do you what?"

"Do you want want to....maybe...go hang out somewhere?"

Some students nearby were muttering about how bold the guy was and how hard the 'Yukiko Challenge' was. Apparently, a lot of people asked her out.

"I...I'd rather not."

The guy was suddenly angry, not only at Yukiko, but at everyone in the area, "FINE!" He ran off, and I wasn't sure if he was about to cry or about to punch something.

Chie was shocked, "Imagine the nerve of that guy. Coming up and calling you Yuki all of a sudden."

Yukiko was clearly rattled, "What did he want from me?"

"Are you really that clueless?" Chie was amazed, despite apparently having seen this a lot, "He was asking you for a date!"

Yukiko was shocked, "R-really?"

I laughed a little inside, then noticed we were getting a lot of strange looks, "Let's go, everyone is staring."

Chie was laughing a good bit about the whole thing but I tried to change the topic by getting back to kung-fu movies. It worked. After a short walk we rounded a corner to take an alleged short cut to the store, a shortcut roped off by crime scene tape. The girls stopped to look, and I overheard some housewives nearby gossiping about it, one complaining about she hadn't gotten to see 'the body' and another mentioning that it looked like someone had tried to hang hr from an antenna, but the body had been cut loose at some point and was just on the roof when the cops arrived. It made me sick, not the mention of a body, but the fact they had wanted to see it so badly. Why were humans like that? It was morbid!

A plain clothes cop suddenly spotted us and walked over, "Hey, you kids. Did you see anything?"

"No sir, we were just now passing by from school." I replied.

"Well move along and head straight home." He turned away, "Damn principal, I told them to keep kids away from here.

Another plain clothes officer, apparently named Adachi, ran by and puked, gaining a reprimand from the first, who was apparently a detective named Dojima.

Dojima was about to turn but I called out, "Excuse me. Who got hurt?" I didn't expect him to answer, I was trying to get the housewives to gossip about it.

The cop looked at me scornfully, "That's police business, now move along."

I got my answer, I couldn't hear most of the new chatter, but I caught one word that made my heart sink: Yamano. I still couldn't remember exactly what happened back in that room, or how I was alive and she wasn't, but I'd failed. I rolled over the description in my head. Someone he tried to hang her from an antenna? I could only wonder if it had been by the leg like the Hanged Man card in my fortune. Why was it cut loose though? If someone had freed it, wouldn't the cops have some evidence to find who cut her loose? Why hang it? How did whatever did it get it up there? Was was the body in this world at all? My mind reeled with questions. The metaphor of the situation might have been off base, but it had some meaning to me. If her present had been the same as one face of the Hanged Man, like Igor had said many people's were, I had given her the power to finally act. I'd at least saved her soul. All I could do was move on. Move on and find who put her there to begin with.

Chie looked a little frightened, "Let's go to Junes tomorrow okay? Let's just get the DVD and leave it at that."

Yukiko nodded.

Next Chapter: Moving On


	8. Chapter 7: So 7 Chp and only this far?

_A/N: Today's theme song is "Build a Bridge" by Limp Bizkit. Also, I'm coming down with a bit of chest congestion, so my rush of updates may stall here, but who knows? Just a heads-up. _

Chapter 7: Moving On

By the next morning the inn was in chaos, not from a high number of guests, buy from the police asking everyone everything they could think of about the victim of the recent murder. I got ground to dust pretty much. After all, a foreigner comes to town the same day she vanishes, was alone unattended on the same floor, and is large enough a person to have gotten the body onto the roof. Once I was done I got some coffee going and supplied it to co-workers that were waiting for their own turn. On my rounds I couldn't help but notice Yukiko looking exhausted.

"Are you okay, Yukiko?"

"Oh I'm fine, Neir-san. Just a bit tired. Why of all times does this have to happen."

"Well make sure you don't work too hard." naturally I was concerned, "While I'm here would you like some coffee?"

"Sure thanks."

"I'll get you some fruit on the way home. Bananas and oranges are good for restoring stamina and I still have a fair amount of the money I brought from home."

"I can't ask you to do that. We're supposed to be taking care of you, not the other way around."

I laughed, "We'll I can't have you folks dropping like flies now can I? I'm used to it. I've spent most of my life taking care of people."

Some cops were approaching to ask more questions but I intercepted, "Haven't you asked enough questions? She's just been through her mother collapsing and had to adjust to running the place. I'm pretty tapped out too, trying to adjust to a new country, a new school, and a new job all at the same time while this is going on. Can you come back some other day? Perhaps you can just stick to examining her room and the people you want to ask more thing can stop by he station on a a slow day?"

The guy in charge was that Detective Dojima fellow, and thankfully he was a reasonable sort of fellow, "I apologize for their behavior, we're pretty much done for now, so we'll let you kids get to school. We'll be in touch though."

Sure enough, by the time we'd seen all the police out it was almost time to go to school. After changing quickly, we walked to school, bumping into a crashed Yosuke again, helping him out of the trash can he had wound up in. Yukiko gave me a look that said, "Please don't talk about it with anyone." So I didn't bring it up. Other than that and a lot of gossip about the murder, the morning went smoothly. Then we got into our last class, held by a certain special someone dear to all our hearts.

"Be quiet you idiots! You guys ARE in high school aren't you? Can't you shut up during class? Don't you have any any sense?" the lord almighty of moronic pencil-pushers, Mr. Morooka ladies and gentlemen! Let's have a big hand for King Moron everybody, "First of all, my job is to waste my precious time teaching you assholes philosophy, and since I'm so nice I'll straighten up your rotten attitudes while I'm at it! Aren't you honored? And I'll be especially hard on any of you morons that're curious about the murder! Got it? Now get your books out!"

I was so tempted...I actually had to sit on my hands to keep myself from raising my hand and asking about the murder. Damn you Morooka and your involuntary knack for giving me chances to mock you! Such mastery over stupidity surely posed a threat to my very existence. I was fortunate, I already had my book out to the page written on the board. If I'd moved my hands to get my book, surely my willpower would have given way. (A/N: You didn't make fun of the teacher. *beeping noise* Your _Intelligence_ has gone up. Lol.)

"Why are you sitting on your hands?" Chie whispered.

"Oh no reason. Just fighting the urge to annoy him."

"You're so weird."

I grinned, "I prefer 'budding comedic genius' thank you very much."

"No, you're just weird."

I stuck my tongue out at her only to have her responding in kind. Morooka noticed, "Satonaka, Neir, stop acting lie five year olds and pay attention. Neir, stop warming you hands with your ass."

I nodded and obliged, trying my best not to make a snide remark. After class, Chie turned in her seat and stood up, a teasing grin on her face, "You sure are in a good mood today Neir-san. Something happen?"

I laughed lightly, "No. It's just Mr. Morooka."

"Hmm?"

"He's such an buffoon it's hard not to laugh hysterically at him. I mean really? How ludicrously pissed off can one man possibly be?"

She thought about it for a second and smiled, "Looking at it that way I guess he is kinda funny." she fought back a chuckle, "Great, now I'm not gonna be able to sit through his class with a straight face, thanks a lot."

"My pleasure."

Yosuke made his way over and greeted me with a smile of his own, "Hey, Neir-san. Have you gotten used to Inaba yet?"

"Yeah, I'm from a small town too after all. Though I've lived in the big city once or twice too."

"I guess you wouldn't have much trouble settling in anywhere then. Not much to get used to anyway. You know what the town specialty is? Grilled steak! Like that's anything special right?"

I nodded.

"Anyway. Since you helped me out yesterday, how about I treat you? I know this place you can get steak real cheap."

"Um-  
Chie interrupted, "Hey what about me? You broke my copy of Trial of the Dragon. I know I got another, but still."

"You always jump in when I mention food, why should I treat you? Like you said, you got another copy."

"You broke something I lent you, you owe me." Chie looked over to Yukiko, who was getting her books together, "Right Yukiko? Don't you think he should treat us?"

Finished, Yukiko stood up, "No...I'll pass. I don't wanna gain any more weight." I suddenly recalled I'd said eating out at the wrong places caused a lot of weight gain, "Besides, I need to help out at the inn today anyway."

Yosuke seemed impressed, "Wow, Yukiko-san. You're training to be manager already?"

She looked down suddenly a flash of a pained expression I'd seen before crossed her face but seen looked away to conceal it, "No, it's not like that. I'm just helping out when it gets busy, that's all."

I was a bit shell-shocked. She hadn't said a word about her mother collapsing to her friends. Clearly she didn't want to worry them, but besides maybe Miku-san, I didn't know of her talking to anyone about it. She was going through something, I knew that already, and if she wasn't going to seek out someone to help her, "I'll have to pass too, Yosuke, they'll be needing me at the inn as well. Maybe some other time?"

Yukiko whipped around, "No, you don't have too. Relax, you should enjoy yourself since you've been working so hard lately. You haven't even really gotten the chance to get settled in yet."

My usual frown flipped to a smile, "Now if I did that, you'd never get any free time. Call me a martyr if you like, but I can't let others suffer and just relax."

"Somebody's got a crush!" Chie teased me.

I took on a heroic pose, "No, it's called a hero complex. I must defend the innocent! For I am the mighty Bald Man!"

The group had a good chuckle at that, then Chie gave a thumbs up and looked to Yukiko, "Can I help? I know I'm not training for it or anything, but I can help clean. Yosuke'll help too."

"What? Not that I mind helping a friend, but don't sign me on without permission!"

Yukiko looked a little panicked, then accepted it, "Okay, thanks I guess"

Not long after the whole group was busy at the inn. I hadn't intended to get the others involved and risk exposing something Yukiko wanted to keep secret, but everything went well. The cops didn't show up again, nobody happen to talk about the fact the announcer was a guest there, and through 'sheer coincidence" neither of them saw Yukiko doing managerial work. It probably helped that me, Chie, and Yosuke were on cleaning duty. The extra help made everything run far smoother. Even though I found myself working even harder than usual keeping the two volunteers in the dark about everything.

At around four, Yosuke got a call from someone, "Oh, Saki-senpai? What's wrong? Oh, I decided to help out a friend at their job since they were understaffed. Did you need something? You sure? Okay then, talk to you tomorrow."

"Who was that, your girlfriend?" I wondered.

Chie laughed, "He wishes! That was Saki Konishi. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district. Yosuke's had a crush on her for a while!"

Yosuke blushed a little, "It's not like that! She works part time at Junes and I met her since my dad runs the place. She treats me like her brother."

Chie grinned that mischievous smile again. "Ohhh, you don't want her treating you like a brother, huh? Oh, I get it, that's how it is: The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of the invading chain... the flame of forbidden love!"

" The tom-boy with a tenancy to tease when something bugs her and the boy she described as a scion provoking that by having a crush... the fires of a secret passion!"

Chie's jaw hit the floor, "What?!? I don't have a crush on Yosuke! Don't be stupid!"

"Well you don't have to put it that way you know. I'm standing right here." Yosuke chuckled, feigning an emotional wound.

"Anyway." Chie changed the topic, "I have just the thing to fix your broken heart, Yosuke."

"What? A little alone time with a certain tom-boy?" I teased.

Chie shot me a burning gaze "No! Not that! Have you guys ever heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"You believe in a silly urban legend like that?" Yosuke assumed I was in the dark so he elaborated, "Supposedly you look into a turned off TV at midnight on a rainy day and you see your soul-mate. It's stupid."

"Well then if it's so stupid you wouldn't mind trying it." Chie dared.

I decided to let them try it. After all, what was the harm in it? I had other things on my mind, making sure there would be no more deaths was one of them, another being my troubled taishou. I found her neatening up the lobby, specifically wiping down the front desk, as she thought deeply about something. So deeply in fact that she didn't even notice me walk up beside her, grab a broom and start the sweeping. She had that same expression on her face that she'd had that night her mother collapsed. Such a lonely look on her face. I closed my eyes and thought back. A flash of velvet, a piano that my hands yearned to play, a tune not expressed. I hummed, the tune in my head like something from a dream.

"What's that song? Yukiko asked suddenly, "It sounds so lonely."

I opened my eyes and turned to look her in the face, "I'm not sure, it just came to mind. I think you might be inspiring the writer in me or something."

My eyes met hers for an instant and she looked at her feet, "You think I'm lonely?"

"You look lonely."

She blocked me off again, changing the topic without even the slightly subtlety, "I'm glad to hear you've gotten used to Inaba."

"You're avoiding the subject."

"What subject. I'm not lonely." She smiled a fake smile that felt like a thousand knives cutting into the very core of my being, "I have my mother and my father, everyone at the inn treats me so well. I've got Chie at school."

"That doesn't mean you aren't lonely. All the people in the world could be with you and you could still be lonely."

She started walking faster, "I'm fine, Neir-san, you don't need to worry about me. You should have just gone to dinner with Chie and Yosuke, you deserve time with your friends."

Well that probably hadn't come out right, but it still stung a little, "You're my friend. What's a bit of steak if you need some support at the inn? If you won't talk to me about what's bothering you I can at least help out with that much. It's really busy now after all. Even without the cops coming in and out."

"I don't want you to put yourself out because..."

"You don't have to put yourself out either. I don't want you killing yourself with work because I went for some stupid meal. That'd be just plain rude of me."

She laughed, a real laugh...well a small subdued giggle at least. Sure it was rimmed with a detectable urge to cry, but I would take want I could get, "Thanks Neir-san. I'm glad to have you as a friend. Just promise me you won't worry so much. You're starting to act like my dad did when I was little. Can you make me that promise?"

"Sure thing, Taishou-san." she wasn't going to let me help with hat was really bothering her, but maybe I could ease the pain a little.

When my shift was finally over a few hours later and the two volunteers had both gone home, I had a chance to relax and just think about things alone in my room. Which was actually a bad thing. With everything I had on my mind lately, anything distracting was a godsend. I thought about what might be bothering Yukiko and found myself admiring her sheer willpower. The simple fact she could hide away her emotions so well by pure natural talent was amazing. Ever since I met her though I knew she was the type to try and deal with her own problems, and not be a burden on anyone. I could tell she wanted help. That loneliness she was feeling was a familiar thing to me.

That tune came into my head again. Needling at me, but as I dwelled on it...I noticed it was only a piece of a full composition. It needed something else. The song sounded lonely sure, partly because there was an instrument missing. Velvet...a piano...this song was important...connected to my future somehow. I thought about it, thought about the feelings it was trying to convey, but nothing came to mind. I hummed the tune over and over until I gave up and went back downstairs. I looked out the window on the stairs and sighed. It was raining again just like Chie had said it would. I'd wanted to get some air...

It was late, the staff was working on getting everything wrapped up and put away for the night. Even though I had had already put in my share of work and was not in my uniform anymore, no one seemed to care when I lent a hand. Most of them probably were too busy wondering if I was the killer, or some (like Miku-san and Mr. Amagi) probably could tell I was in a mood where I needed to move my hands and work off some stress. When everything was done, it was even later, and still raining.

I was tempted to go for a short walk outside anyway when some humming caught my ear. It sounded similar to the tune I had been humming earlier, but was different enough to almost be a separate song. It was lonely and melancholy. I walked quietly towards the source and found it in a small area behind the front desk, The room I had found her in that night. The room looked like a family room, but combined with an office. Pictures of old people in kimonos were on the far wall, relatives I assume. Yukiko was there, humming as she looked over the guest list at the table that served as a desk. She looked like she felt out of place and she abruptly stood up and moved to another seat on a small couch facing the chair she had been in. I guessed she had been sitting in her mom's chair where the woman did her work. The lonely humming got a bit more active, agitated but somehow not in an angry way. It was more of a desperate way. I hummed the tune stuck in my head and realized. That tune on the piano in my mind was lonely not because it was missing a piece, but because it was longing. The tune was calling out for someone to hear it. It was...

I dashed up the stairs and grabbed a piece of paper, my inspiration kindled. Words flowed from my hand onto the paper through the divine medium of the pen. I finally understood a piece of that damn tune!

Then the Midnight Channel flipped on. I could barely make it out, but there was a girl there, in our school uniform with long curly hair. I couldn't make out the color, but the more important fact is it looked like she was arguing with someone. The killer had struck again, and I couldn't due anything about it. With no idea who it was or where they had been thrown in, I was helpless. I could only hope that girl could hold out until I figured it out.

Next Chapter: Well, That Could Have Gone Better...


	9. Chapter 8, God Bless Queen

_A/N: Theme Song for this chapter is "Under Pressure" by Queen. And no this isn't the last time Queen will be the source of a theme in this fic. In fact a much later chapter will not only feature "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a theme, but...oh wait that would be a spoiler, never mind._

Chapter Eight: Well, That Could Have Gone Better...

There was that room again, empty though, all except the same feeling of dread that hanged in the air. The bed with the trash can near it, the ripped posters, that make-shift noose that had never been used, they were all there too, but the only sign of life was me. Suddenly screams filled my senses, screams of pain and fear. A bellow in rage dispelled them, bringing on tears. The fury faded soon, but tranquility was not beyond, death was. Last words echoed off the walls, seemingly unheard, perhaps forgotten.

"Promise me..."

I sat up with a start, "Huh?!?"

I was at the desk in my room, having fallen asleep after trying for hours to think of what to do. Looking at the clock I discovered I'd only been asleep an hour. Being 5:30 in the morning, it was nearly time for the early staff to get up and start the day, and that included the two students living there. I decided to ponder the dream while I made that breakfast I promised them.

I hadn't come up with anything, or even an idea of what I was supposed to do before the Amagi's came down. Ms. Amagi wasn't coming back for a few more days, but the exhausted faces of the two who were around made me glad I'd decided to give up on sleeping a little longer and make breakfast. They were surprised to say the least.

"It's nothing complicated, but dig in. Make sure you drink the orange juice and take a banana for a snack later. Since the inn is so busy we need all the stamina we can get."

Mr. Amagi smiled big, "Boy, we sure got a hard worker! I was worried for a bit before you got here, but it's nice to see a youth so dedicated."

I turned to clean up the stove so the staff could make the guests' breakfast soon, so he didn't see me frown. My voice betrayed nothing, "It's nothing really. I'm used to it. You can rely on me. I'm a pro at simple dishes and being a shoulder for crying on."

"That's a strange offer considering you seemed so vehement about not being considered a part of the family."

I was surprised by his bluntness, to be honest I was hoping it wouldn't come up, even though I figured somebody would mention it, "Did I come off that strongly opposed to it? I apologize. I really didn't mean to offend."

"You haven't offended me really, I was just curious about it." he smiled, it was the kind of smile you see on TV when a dad is trying to give advice to a troubled local kid, "After all, we offered to host you here for free, but you insisted on working it off. You wanted to pay for your room like any guest."

"I don't like putting people out."

"But we signed up for this whole thing didn't we?"

"I didn't." I quickly realized that would be misunderstood, "What I mean is...how do I put this?"

"Say it in English if it helps, Yukiko can translate."

Yukiko suddenly perked up at the request and looked at me, ready to help. I got the impression she was happy to, mainly since it got her out of her own thoughts. She did seem interested though as well. Maybe she'd also been wondering about it, but it was hard to tell lately.

I turned back to my work, dividing up the meal as an excuse to escape the prying eyes focused on me. I found my mind trying to seclude itself again, sinking into the rut of minimal interaction and impeding my thoughts. I fought it, running over possible ways to express my emotions, "It's more a matter of there not being perfect words for it, not not knowing enough of the language. Let's just say I'm not all that good with family stuff. I never got on well with my parents or my sister, so I'd rather associate you nice people with something more comfortable."

"We are they like? If you don't mind me asking?" Yukiko asked, I wasn't looking, but I could tell she had a concerned look on her face.

I fought back the rude words that came to mind and softened them, "I'd rather not talk about it. Can we just go with me being a guest and you all being good friends?"

I turned and set down their plates as Mr. Amagi nodded, "Sure, it's really not our place to pry if you don't want us to." He started eating, "Hey, these are some good eggs."

"Nothing fancy," I said plainly, "I probably should have asked everyone how they like them, but I kinda decided to do this on a whim."

Yukiko seemed impressed, no more surprised, that I could cook, "Scrambled is fine. More than I could do really."

Mr. Amagi smiled at his daughter, the kind of smile that said it was okay she couldn't cook, even though he secretly thought the opposite. Then he turned back to me, "You should take the day off, Bryan..." he was about to use the -kun honorific, which in his case most likely denoted he thought of me as an endearing junior, but realized how awkward it sounded and moved on, "You've been driving yourself to the bone lately. You only have to work three days a week for your expenses, so you should pace yourself."

"No, Amagi-san, that's really not..."

"I insist! You'll be making me feel like a bad host if you keep going like this."

I glanced at Yukiko, "I'll take a break when Mrs. Amagi gets back from the hospital tomorrow. Right now the inn is short-staffed."

Mr. Amagi laughed, "Geez! You worry more than she does I swear! When she gets back Yukiko will have two dotting mothers to deal with!"

I scratched the back of my head, uncomfortable, and put on a fake smile. The rest of breakfast went by uneventfully and I walked to school again with Yukiko, taking the chance to pry into the cause of the sad expression on her face, even though I had begun to guess the reasons behind it. "I'd ask about that frown, but I promised not to worry too much."

"I'll be fine. Take the break today, I don't want anyone else overworked."

"I've only been working a few days, you've been doing this for how long now?"

She looked away, trying to conceal her pained expression, but it was pointless, "I'm used to it, you're still adjusting, and you always seemed to be thinking hard about things, just relax for today okay?"

"You need help, I wanna be here for you."

She smiled, "You're a good friend Neir-san, thank you. Remember, you promised though."

"I don't think I'm..."

"I'm sorry Neir-san, but this is just one of those things I have to handle myself."

I sulked, "Nobody should have to...but I understand."

By the time we got off the bus and met with Chie, I was already a bit tired, both from lack of sleep and all the emotions that had been running through my head. Chie had noticed the weird silence that had fallen over us, but Yukiko expertly dodged the topic with discussion of something Chie had brought up the day before. That got the tom-boy thinking about shopping for big screen TVs again, a subject I was well versed in.

"When you go big, you have to keep in mind that the larger it is, the lower the image quality. What are you looking for exactly? Huge size? Great clarity? Good depth of color? You have to make sacrifices on at least one."

"Ummm...I'm not sure. What are the options?" both Chie and Yukiko were looking at me funny, as I had started talking like a weird combination of a salesman and a teacher.

That's right, I was in full tech-geek mode, "Well, you can combine supreme affordability with versatility, the sharpest image quality for a larger screen, and good color depth, but it's more technical, you'd have to shop at more places, and the largest screen you'd have access to would be about 27 to 30 inches. Or you can go huge, with passable image quality, simplicity, and mind numbing color depth, but with twice the cost, a slightly more limited lifespan, and half the versatility. Or-"

Chie held her hands up, "Wait-wait-wait, I'm getting confused. You're going too fast. You know a lot about it, so just give me a recommendation."

"Well, that really hinges on if you want a huge screen or you'd be willing to go only 30' inches and have really sharp picture."

"How much sharper?"

"Hmmm...I'd need to show you. The difference is pretty drastic, but you wouldn't notice unless you saw the sharper one, which is cheaper by the way. If you want huge and cheap the image quality dips even further."

"How much further?"

"Like...ummm....looking through brand new window, then looking through one that needs a polish. I'd really have to show you."

Right on cue, Chie spotted Yosuke, apparently our discussion had us running a little late, "Hey Hanamura!"

He turned, having been looking a bit distracted, and I noticed he didn't have his bike, "Oh, Satonaka-san, what's up?"

I also noticed the fact they were being formal with each other, but Chie continued, "I was just talking about shopping for TVs. Don't you have some big ones at Junes?"

"Yeah, funny you should mention it, we're beefing up our electronics section this month and just got some new ones in."

I decided to say my piece, "Well I suppose after school tomorrow I could help you pick one." Not like I had any flippin' idea how to save that girl on the Midnight Channel anyway, "Yosuke-san can show us around and I can steer you towards the best deal."

"Oh, you know a lot about TVs Bryan?"

Chie held her hands up in mock desperation, "Don't get him started!"

I laughed, "Oh you haven't heard anything. Wait until you accidentally get me ranting about computers. Now that's an ear full."

There was more idol chit-chat on the way to school, when I finally decided to breech the important topic, "So you guys were gonna try the Midnight Channel right? See anything?"

Chie got slightly uncomfortable, "Did you watch it?"

"Yeah. Oddly enough I saw Mr. Morooka." I lied.

Yosuke was shocked, Yukiko strangely didn't seem to believe me in the least, and Chie was just plain flabbergasted, "What? Are you serious?"

"Of course not!" I chuckled, "But the look on your face! Ha-ha-OW!" Chie had hit me in the arm.

"Be serious."

"Yeah, I watched. Did you see anything? Remember I asked first." her earlier reaction made the answer pretty obvious, but still.

"Yeah, I did. I seriously saw a girl! But my soul-mate's a girl? What's that supposed to mean? I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure. Her hair was brown, about shoulder length, and she was wearing out school uniform, and..."

Yosuke, surprised, butted in, "Hey, I think that's the same person I saw. I couldn't make out that much detail, though. The image I saw was much blurrier."

"Wait, so you saw it, too!? And we saw the same girl? Does that mean...we have the same soul-mate?"

"How should I know?" Yosuke turned to me, "How 'bout you? Did you see it?"

"Yep, same girl."

For some reason, Yukiko glanced at me with an expression I couldn't read, like a combination of hurt and confusion. I would have asked what was wrong, but the conversation carried forward when Yosuke said, "We all saw the same person? How could that be?"

"Maybe the Midnight Channel is something entirely different than the rumor says." I stated simply.

"Like what?" Yosuke wondered,

"I don't know. Have either of you heard what others have seen on it?"

Chie nodded, "Well yeah, I heard one guy in the class next to ours say that the announcer was his soul mate. He'd seen her on the the Midnight Channel...before she died."

Yosuke stopped, holding his hands up as if trying to take the conversation back a step, "Whoa, wait, are you saying the TV is showing us who's going to die?"

"Well considering a dead woman can hardly be anyone's soul-mate, it's a possibility." I mused.

"We should tell someone about this!"

Chie rolled her eyes. "Who'd believe us? We don't even no for sure if that's it."

"Well, we're late as it is." I noted, also noticing that Yukiko had kept walking, apparently so deep in thought she wasn't paying any attention to the direction the conversation had taken, "Chie, you seem into rumors and all that."  
"You make it sound like I gossip."

"You do." Yosuke quipped.

"Regardless," I continued, "Try and see if anyone knows anything about the murders, who found the body or stuff like that. If this new victim has any connection to the first murder then she might actually be in danger." I didn't tell them I had reason to believe the person was already in danger.

Class went by without a hitch and I ignored most of the teachers like always. The only one I really paid any mind to were the language teachers, for obvious reasons. Otherwise I had no real need for them. I could simply learn better on my own and soaked up enough in class to sponge my way through. After classes were over, my two new sidekicks assembled.

There were a few students talking about the murder, their lack of sadness about it sickened me a little, "What's up with the body being hung upside-down? That's so freaky!

"Is it suppose to be like, mimicking an execution? It's messed up."

Some short girl added, "My senpai told me it was a third-year named Saki who found the body."

Well that was easy. I wondered if it was the same Saki as Yosuke's crush.

Chie cleared that right up, "Yosuke, did you hear the rumor? Saki-senpai's supposedly the one who discovered that body."  
"I wonder if that's why she sounded so down. She doesn't seem to be at school today either."

Chie was about to say something when she spotted Yukiko leaving, "Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the inn today too?"

Yukiko looked down at her feet to hide her pained expression, "Things are a bit out of hand right now. I'm sorry."

"You need some more help?"

"No, no, I'll manage."

I stood up, noticing Yukiko frown even harder at my doing so, what that heck was I doing wrong? It was so confusing trying to read someone who so vehemently didn't want to worry me, "I promised to help out a bit too. So how about we discuss this on the-"

"You don't have to come Neir-san. I'll cover for you." Yukiko said with a fake smile and walked out before I could say anything.

Apparently Yosuke had noted the strange behavior as well, "Is is just me, or does Yukiko-san seem way stressed out today?"

"I guess they're running her ragged...maybe you _should _go help, Bryan."

I was torn, "But Saki-senpai could be in danger."

"We don't know that for sure." said Chie, clearly concerned more for her own friend.

Yosuke nodded, "I'll get in touch with her and make sure she's okay. I don't wanna worry her, but I'll think of something to get her to stay inside."

Work went by as usual, if your definition of normal is being avoided by a girl you're worried about and getting really really tired of all the damn drama and all the damn rain. By the time my shift ending, I'd almost forgotten all about Saki-senpai, which I would soon be kicking myself for.

I flicked the TV in my room on, only to find the late night news on, "And now, more on the case still casting a shadow over the foggy town of Inaba. Not long ago, television announcer Mayumi Yamano was found dead in the small town. Up until now, her whereabouts prior to her death had been unknown. But the police investigation has found that she had been staying in the region's famous Amagi Inn. She had apparently been staying there alone. Perhaps she was taking a vacation to recover from her ordeal?"

The other announcer chimed in, "Oh yes, the Amagi Inn! Their hot springs are first-rate. The manager's teenage daughter also works there, and it's rumored that she'll take over the inn this spring. If that happens, she'll be one of the youngest managers on record! I should book another trip there!"

"Uh... I-I see... Moving along, it's time for the weather report. The rain has begun to subside. From now until morning, heavy fog warnings will be in effect in the Inaba region. Visibility will be severely reduced, so please be careful if you plan on driving in the area..."

Wait...fog? I went to the medium-sized window in my room and opened the blinds, a fog was rolling in, and I recalled the same had happened the night Mayumi-san...the night I failed to save her. Oddly the fog in there had been clearing, right before that swarm broke in and undid all the hope I had. I still couldn't recall how I'd gotten out alive. Now...was it Saki-senpai's turn? Had I failed again?

I didn't have the number to call Yosuke to see if he'd contacted Saki, besides, I had already seen her in the TV world, and she'd missed school...

It was almost midnight. I turned he TV off so I could get any slim amount of hope. I didn't get any. Instead I could only sit and watch helplessly as Saki went slowly mad, writing in pain as something got to her. Then there was only darkness in the room she was trapped in, a literally all consuming darkness. Then it was over.

I hadn't been able to do anything.

Next Chapter: Warrior of Redemption

_In the next chapter, Bryan nears the breaking point, Izanagi makes his first appearance, Teddie is introduced, and we finally start moving along in the game's real plot. How will this second failure impact Bryan? What was the point of starting early if he didn't save anybody? How will being introduced to the TV world a little later have on the rest of the team? In the chapters to come, how will Bryan react to Yukiko appearing on the Midnight Channel? Will his relatively heightened knowledge help things?_


	10. Chapter 9, The Big Chapter

_A/N: Today's theme song "Dance with the Devil" by Breaking Benjamin. Make sure it's the Breaking Benjamin one, NOT the one by Immortal Technique of the same name, which is a totally different song. You'll note this is the longest chapter so far (heck nearly double the length of the longest), as I had to cover more ground than usual. Whether or not this will be common with chapters in which shadows are faced is yet to be seen. The previously mentioned other crossover elements also finally appear in this chapter as does the first real throw down brawl. Oh by the way, Teddie seems a bit friendlier at 'first' meeting, but that's explained somewhat in this chapter and in detail much later in the story. Lastly I apologize for recycling some text near the end of the trip to the TV world. But was there really a need to rewrite the whole explanation? I mean really._

Chapter Nine: Warrior of Redemption

In a place neither dream nor reality, between mind and matter, a card in one person's fortune flipped over. Though unaware of it as he might have been, desire had come to Bryan Neir's life in more forms than one. The desire of a kohai for the senpai whose family hated him, and his own fledgling obsessions for not only the daughter of the family keeping him, but for the mysteries of the Midnight Channel. The next card was the Magician, promising knowledge and power, but also warning against it.

An interesting guest indeed.

* * *

Dear Mr. Neir,

That was for the 'Naoto-chan' thing, since I know you dislike it. Your last letter just came in the mail. Since it arrived so rapidly, I suppose you must have mailed it from the station as you were departing for Inaba. It brought a smile to my face, both from the relief and the silliness you showed in that letter. I have grown used to the occasional teasing remark in letters, but the letter depicted a you I rarely see. I wonder, have you found people in Inaba that you can prod like you do to me? If so then I'm glad for you and for them. Such a friend as you is hard to find in this world.

It occurred to me how little I really know you however. All I know is that you come from a broken home, you don't like to talk about your own concerns, you care far too much sometimes, you would have far better grades if you simply applied yourself, and you seem to be a regular fountain of trivial information. Well, except about grammar and geography apparently.

So in this letter I'm not going to talk about myself at all. I'm going to ask about you. Firstly, as I have already voiced my interest in: Have you made any good friends in Inaba yet? I'd be happy if you could tell me about them...

...To be honest I don't think I'm very good at this. What does one ask about in this situation? In light of my deficiencies in this area, I will instead address another matter brought up by your letter. You cut me to the bone with your remark about my never wishing to meet. However true it may be, I would hate for you to think less of me for it. After all, I do value you as a friend and confidant. Of course I don't mind you being in Japan. That would be rather silly of me. I'm just not certain of my feelings on meeting you right now. It's true that I only started confiding in you because you were at a safe distance, but how I feel about it now, with you so close by, is uncertain. Part of me is glad you didn't visit, but another part wishes you had gotten it over with.

I wonder though. What do you even look like?

Sincerely,

Shirogane Naoto

The letter seemed so out of context given recent events. I sighed and put it away, not having the will to write back. It was nearly time for school anyway, and experience I wasn't looking forward too. Yosuke would likely be devastated if that was indeed Saki on the TV the night before. Somehow, given the whole thing, a letter I receive the day before seemed like small potatoes.

It got me thinking though. If it was Saki, should I tell him the truth about the Midnight Channel? Would he blame me for his senpai's death? Should I blame myself? Yukiko was going with her dad to pick up her mom from the hospital, and wouldn't be going to school until lunch. Which meant Chie and I were walking the whole way alone. She noticed my depressed mood, but said nothing, apparently at a loss for words. The rain pouring down didn't brighten my mood, nor did the gossiping masses.

"When I looked, I saw three police cars zooming by."

"You live by the police station, don't you? Did you hear anything?  
"I heard some yelling, but nothing more. Total disappointment."

"Geez, you need to pay more attention to stuff like that. How else are we supposed to get the juicy stories?"

I nearly snapped right there, if I had been alone I probably would've thrown mud at them or something. Instead I found myself confiding in Chie, "They make me sick."

Police sirens echoed through the air, catching our attentions for a moment, but then she replied, "What do you mean?"

"I mean there was a murder recently, and apparently from the sound of their gossip there was some other accident, and all they're worried about is getting juicy stories!" I sighed roughly, "People like that..."

"So that's what you look like angry. I can understand your feelings though. Some people just have no empathy."

"And some don't even try to." I almost growled.

Chie was staring at me, so I buttoned up my feelings and gave her a smile, "Don't look at me like that. It not that big a deal really, it just gets under my skin."

"No problem, pisses me off too."

I could only laugh at that.

After lunch there was an assembly, and I could guess what it was about. Yosuke had been quiet all day, for reasons I could just as easily guess. The place was packed with students of every year of course, and unlike American schools or larger Japanese schools we were all standing in an organized fashion waiting for the principal to tell us what was going on. There was more chatter.  
"Hey. Did you see it yesterday?"

"Of course not. What, is that rumor for real?"

"I dunno, but it seems like a lot of people have seen it."  
Chie ignored it, checking her watch with a worried look on her face, "Didn't Yukiko said she'd be here after lunch? Hmm. Oh well, I wonder why they're holding a school assembly all of a sudden." She noted Yosuke cringe at that remark, "Hey, what's wrong, Yosuke?  
"It's nothing..." he lied.

One of the teachers I hadn't bothered learning the name of yet came to the podium, "Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly is about to begin. First, the principal has something to say."

She stepped aside and from behind the curtain stepped Moses, who actually looked pretty decent for a guy of a few thousand years. I pondered asking him if he could part the student body like the Red Sea when I realized it was just an regular guy far beyond retirement age and far too found of his facial hair. Kidding aside, he had a grim announcement that I had expected and tried to lighten with a bit of internal inappropriate age jokes, "I... regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you. One of our third-year students, Ms. Saki Konishi of class 3...Has passed away."

Chie, of course was stunned, her voice coming out in almost a squeak, "Passed away...!?"  
We both looked over to Yosuke, who looked like he'd just had his stomach ripped out and gotten slapped in the face with it. Twice.

The principal continued, despite the uproar, "Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning, the reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police. If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you as students of this school to provide only the facts. All right, please quiet down... I have been assured by the faculty that there's no evidence that bullying was involved in the incident." I wanted to scream at him, mostly because of the way he said it, as if he was trying to protect the school. This was confirmed when he said (in the same fashion, "So mind what you say, not only to the police but to anyone who asks..."  
Chie was in shock, her eyes glazed and drifted to the floor, I could feel her hurt. She didn't feel anything but slight remorse for the girl herself. Why would she really when they probably didn't know each other? But knowing how much she meant to Yosuke, that was more than she could take, "Found dead...? Wasn't she supposed to...?  
Yosuke grunted audibly in heartache, in failure. The three of us had worried about his happened, maybe some of us more seriously than others, but it only made it all the worse. Knowing that we could have done something....  
Unable to take all the emotions swirling in my head, I let my friend down again. Instead of staying to comfort him after the address ended, I stormed out, ignoring the protests of the teachers and any repercussions it might have. I simply left, and puked my guts out in the nearest garbage can. Worse still, adding to everything else going bad, I had forgotten breakfast that morning, and skipped lunch. With a teacher there watching I dry heaved so hard I thought my soul was going to pop out. I had to fight the urge to collapse.  
By the time the speech ended twenty minutes later, I'd recovered and escaped the nurse's office. Only to run into my accursed chatter. At least the new batch was informative.

"She died the same way as that announcer, right? That's so creepy..."  
"Well, last time, it was from an antenna and someone had cut her down, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole.

"Maybe the first time the rope snapped?"

"Maybe, but still it's gotta be a serial murder case."

"Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison."

"Unknown? C'mon, this isn't some sci-fi drama. Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl that looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie. They said she totally looked like she was in pain. Isn't it scary?"

"Haha, sounds like someone had a nightmare. The media's been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain."

I hadn't heard Chie come up behind me, "Sheesh, it's easy to toss around theories if you're not personally involved! You okay?"

"I'm fine, how's..." I spotted the man himself, "Yosuke!"

He didn't look okay, but he could have been worse, Hey... Did you guys check the TV last night?"

Chie sighed, "Yeah, I was hoping you hadn't though."  
"There's no mistaking it... Senpai looked like... she was writhing in pain... And then...she disappeared from the screen."

"So we were right? Is that what you're saying?"

"You heard Senpai's body was found in a similar situation as that announcer's, right? We can't just can't dismiss it as coincidence."

Chie noted me deep in thought, "What' on your mind, you look like you know something."

I didn't speak for a moment, I was wondering if I should tell them about the world inside the TV or not. If I told Yosuke, he'd probably want to go in and look for some closure, and that place was dangerous in more ways than one. Someone was using it as a murder weapon after all, "To be honest, I had watched the Midnight Channel even before Chie mentioned it the first time. Purely by accident mind you, and I had no idea what it meant. I saw the announcer lady on it, and now Saki." I paused, something felt odd about the whole thing, I needed to confirm something, "Yosuke, were you ever able to get in contact with Saki yesterday?"

"No. I even called her home phone. I didn't tell them who I was of course, they hate my family, but I found out she'd gone to the police station to answer some more questions. I figured she'd be safe."

"So she was still around when she was on the Midnight Channel." I mused.

Chie got a bit of the point, "Does that mean the killer can't be filming them?"

"I think the varying image clarity adds to that theory. Which means the Midnight Channel has to be something else entirely."

Yosuke was a bit skeptical but given the circumstances, he was willing to keep an open mind, "You mean, like something...supernatural?"

"Exactly. If that's the case though, we have to ask ourselves, is the killer's intent making them appear? Or is he killing because they appear on it?"

Chie rubbed her eyes, "You know, this is a lot to take in right now. Can we meet up later and talk about this some more?"  
Perfect, " Sure, that's fine. We'll be getting at least one day's warning if there's anther victim anyway."

Chie shivered at the thought, "Another victim....I hope there isn't one." She looked at Yosuke, "I'm sorry about Saki-senpai, Yosuke. I know how much she meant to you."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll feel a lot better when they get the guy though."

Chie lingered for a moment, and for lack of how to handle the situation, she finally wandered off, leaving me alone with the still shaken teen. He had apparently suddenly taken quite an interest in the floor, though of course love of good flooring usually finds good company with sorrow. It was then that I made m choice. I couldn't just stand by and let a friend of mine love floors that much. Especially such a plain and insignificant one.

"I need to talk to you about something Yosuke, something important."

He looked up at me, interest peaked, "What?"

"Not here. Meet me at the Junes food court after school, I'll treat you."

I sponged through the rest of my classes, not that the teachers were doing much after that kind of news was broken to the students. I got to Junes after Yosuke, mostly because it was the first time I had ever been there and his dad apparently ran the place. He'd mentioned it in passing while we were working at the inn earlier in the week, but that wasn't important. He'd already ordered for both of us, and I settled in with a sip of my drink.

"So what do you need to talk to me about? And why didn't you want to talk with Chie around?"

I set down the drink and cleared my throat. It was going to be tricky conveying everything right in Japanese, but I was going to have to try as much as I could. "I didn't want Chie involved in this unless she had to be. I'm about to suggest something a little dangerous."

His interest was peaked, "What do you mean?"

"If you had the chance to get some answers about Saki-senpai's death, but it was risky, would you?"

"It depends on the risk. Are you suggesting I act like bait or something?"

I almost chuckled, "No, of course not. Thing is, I'm not sure you'd believe me."

"Shoot."

"Remember when I suggested the Midnight Channel was supernatural?"

"Of course."

"I have proof."

Yosuke looked at me sideways, "Really? Where'd you even get it?"

"It kind of got _me_...like physically." I leaned back, "I saw the announcer lady by accident remember? Well, that's not everything. The fact is, I tried to save her too. Didn't work so well."

"Apparently not." Yosuke remarked, "But you seriously tried to save her? Is that why the body was cut down?"

"I have no idea what happened there. What I mean is, I know how the killer is doing it, I've seen it."

Yosuke didn't believe me, I could tell it on his face, "Yeah, you witnessed the murder and tried to stop it. Why haven't you told the police yet then?"

"That is an answer that will be made clear in just a few moments. Eat up, then I'll show you what I mean."

After we ate he led me to the electronic department at my request, there were no customers, which is likely why they had no clerks in the area. It worked out just fine for me, but Yosuke wasn't sure what to think, "Man, is this some kinda sick joke?" he turned only to see my arm casually inside the largest of the TVs, "Whoa! What the hell? How are you doing that?"

"I don't know, but I've been ale to do it since I saw Ms. Yamano on the Midnight Channel. Some kind of voice in my head mentioned something about a gate opening."

"Right." He moved around, looking at the trick from every angle, "What's this mean? The victims are actually killed inside TVs? Someone else can do this?"

"Exactly. I don't know why or how, but I'm guessing I got this power so I could stop him. Hasn't worked out so well though." I pulled my arm from the television.

Yosuke frowned, "You tried to save Saki-senpai too?"

"I never even got the chance. There wasn't enough time. It's not a one TV deal, I have to find the exact TV they were thrown through, or I could end up in any number of places. Heck the first time I did this I nearly lost an arm." I tried to explain everything as clearly as I could, and thanks to the demonstration, Yosuke seemed accepting, freaked out, but accepting, "I'm sorry, Yosuke."

He slapped me on the shoulder, "It's okay man, I guess you did all you really could. You did only have a day." looking down, he seemed to understand why I was telling him, "Thanks for letting me know, and that stuff a little while ago. You're offering to take me inside a TV? Maybe find some answers?"

"Yeah, this one didn't try to eat me, so I guess it will take us somewhere inside the TV world and have a chance at finding the place she was trapped. There's also a chance we'll fall into a nightmarish prison though, like the victims. And while I'm being open about things, I've only gone fully inside once, and I was nearly killed. I don't even remember how I got out."

"But you did get out."

"What I'm saying is, it should be relatively safe, but it might be a one way trip. We could be killed by the things that killed the victims or never escape. The killer didn't kill them. He threw them into a murder weapon we're talking about stepping into. Are you sure you want to risk it?"

"I can't just let it go man."

I frowned and nodded, handing him a list I'd gotten ready in class, "I figured you'd say that. Go get these items and come back here, I'll hold down the fort."

"Right."

About thirty minutes later he came back, and read off the list, "Okay, rope? Check. Really long shipping tube? Check. Plastic wrap? Check. Flashlights? Check. A six pack of those diet shakes? Check. Machete/hatchet, our camping department locks those up so I couldn't get them. I got some blunt weapons though. Is a metal bat and a pair of heavy wrenches good?"

"Good enough." I nodded.

"Two pair of weight lifting gloves of mixed martial arts gloves. I found the weight-lifting gloves."

"Good, those are handy for climbing and holding things. That's everything I think."

"What's with the shipping tube and plastic wrap though?" he wondered, holding them up.

I grabbed the tube and removed each end, "Just a test. You see we can't see through to the other side without going in, so I figured if we got a long enough tube and wrapped one end to seal it as a precaution..." I did so.

Suddenly Yosuke saw the obvious logic in it, "We might be able to take a peek!"

"Exactly. Even if it doesn't work we might find out if this rope will hold when it goes through." I stuck the wrapped end in as far has it would go and still have room for me to grip. The instant my free hand lost contact with the TV though, it broke off, "Well, apparently the door closed on it."

"Apparently." Yosuke remarked, "Doesn't that mean you'd have to stay here holding the door for the rope to work?"

"Yeah, but we can't do that."

"I guess not." he tossed the rope aside, "I still want to go. You got out once, so..."

I put on my lifting gloves and grabbed the bat, Yosuke followed suit putting the two wrenches in his pockets where he could get them easy and holding his flashlight in hand, I grabbed mine before stepping halfway into the TV, "Okay, I'll hold the door so you don't develop a split personality if you get my meaning, grab my hand."

Yosuke breathed in deep, grabbed my hand and made the plunge, I let his weight pull me along. Now if only landing had been as smooth. We came out of the tunnel high about ten feet off the ground. Yosuke managed to land pretty good, despite landing on his wallet, and I landed pretty heavily on my shoulder, but thanks to that was able to roll with it.

"Ow! Glad I did have my keys in that pocket!" Yosuke laughed, looking around he jumped as he spotted me, "Gah! What the hell?"

"I quickly looked at my hands, suddenly remembering the glowing veins thing, "Oh, forgot about that..."

"How do you forget a circulatory system that could be a night light?"

"Look, it's just a part of the power I guess, it doesn't hurt or anything." I looked to my left hand and sure enough the card outline was still there. On closer inspection, I noticed the glowing was visible though the thinner parts of my uniform, which was mostly the upper body since I'd left the gray outer shirt at school.

"That's weird though." He looked around, "Not as weird as this place though, what's with this place anyway? It looks like a studio of some kind, and all this fog."

"Fog?"

"Yeah fog. Can't you see it?"

I looked everywhere, "No...strange. I used to...but that was before the glowing thing...so maybe...." I shook my head, "Anyway, the fog is good, last time it was reasonably safe until the fog cleared."

Actually the inability to see the fog was handy, but also a liability. If I was alone, I'd have no way to know if the fog was clearing or not. Regardless, the area did in fact look a lot like a studio, weird artsy coloration and walkways of varying width were a distinctly different element though. Then there was that weird-looking bear dressed in a somewhat clown-like set of clothing walking towards us. Wait...?

"Who goes there?" I said, readying my weapon.

Yosuke hadn't spotted the bear, but he seemed to when it got closer, "Whoa, what is that? A bear? A monkey?"

It spoke in a mildly annoying cutesy voice, "I'm a bear obviously." he looked at me fondly, "Oh you're back! I was hoping you were okay. Not everyone could survive being in here when the fog is clear. I'm impressed."

The bear did seem familiar, "We've met?"

"Oh you forgot? I'm Teddie. You were half-knocked out when the fog came back. I came looking for the weird smell in here and came across you."

"Was there anyone else?"

"No. Should there have been?" he asked with a curious look.

I shook my head, "Never mind. Are you the one that helped me escape this place last time?"

It nodded, well it had no neck so it was more of an affirmative wiggle, "Yep. But why are you back? I thought you learned your lesson last time you came in here. Chasing the other one?"

Yosuke snapped out of his confusion at that, "Other one? You mean Saki-senpai?"

Teddie shrugged, "How would I know her name, but I mean the one thrown in last. Someone's been throwing people in here, and this guy popped up after the first. He's a bit late this time though. That girl's already gone again."

"Gone again?" I wondered.

"Yeah, gone. Just like the first one. The fog cleared and I couldn't smell her anymore."

"That must be when they appear in our world again." that made sense, "Teddie, do you have any idea who's throwing folks in here?"

"No! I just wish they'd think before they do that kind of thing! It's making my home a complete mess!"

"Home? You live here?" Yosuke seemed shocked, "What kind of place is this? Is that show filmed here?"

"Show? Filmed? What's that?"

"Never mind. I guess not. What do you mean mess?"

"New places keep popping up, it seems to upset the shadows. I've lived here for ages and I've never seen it in such a state!"

"Shadows?" Yosuke hadn't seen them before so he was in the dark.

It dawned on me, "That room Mayumi-san was trapped in....Teddie, can you take us to where the last person vanished. We really need your help."

Yosuke stepped up, "Yeah, every time the fog rolls in, their dead body shows up in our world, someone's using this place to kill people."

"A dead body? Whenever the fog appears? I know that if it's foggy on your side, the fog lifts here. It's really dangerous when the fog lifts. That's when the shadows get violent. Your friend has sen that first hand."  
"You mentioned Shadows before, what are they exactly?"

I went into scholar mode, "From what I gather, they come from humans, like the darkness in their hearts or something similar."

"From humans?"

"You'll find out eventually. Anyway, we're here to look for clues, Teddie, can you take us to where the last one disappeared?"

"You're gonna find out who's doing this? Thanks heavens. I'll take you there right away. Oh, one thing first. You should put these on." the bear pulled out two pairs of glasses and handed them to us. Mine looked a bit similar coincidentally.

Yosuke gave him a funny look as he put them on, "What're these glasses for? Whoa! The difference is like night and day! With these on, it's like the fog doesn't exist!"  
Teddie looked proud, "They'll help you walk through the fog. Well, I've been here for a long time so you can rely on me! Uh...but I can only show you where the place is. You guys will have to defend yourselves."  
Yosuke got annoyed, "What happened to relying on you? We brought weapons, but I mean... they're more for show! We just got here!"

"Calm down Yosuke." I handed the glasses back to Teddy, "I don't need these, for some reason I don't see the fog."

The bear was impressed, "Wow. No human can see in here."

Yosuke had to laugh, "Then again not many of us glow either."

Sometimes it's handy when your default expression is usually either a frown or totally neutral, people don't usually notice when something bothers you unless you let them know, "Anyway, I'm Bran Neir and this is Yosuke Hanamura."

As we departed, something caught my attention. I looked around and didn't see anything, though I'd been fairly certain I'd seen something out of the corner of my eye. Something else hung in the air though, something familiar, a strange sensation of...

"Hey, Bryan, I thought we were going?"

Snapping out of it I jogged to catch up, "Right sorry."

Soon, we arrived at what looked like the shopping district that I passed on my way to school. The atmosphere was thicker somehow and I could sense a feeling of worry and ill-wishes. The distasteful pungency weighed heavier and heavier on me as we moved along. It didn't take a genius to tell that we were nearing Saki's nightmare room.

Yosuke confirmed many of my own observations, "What is this place? It looks just like the shopping district. What's going on here!?"  
Teddie, who I noticed was keeping his distance, nodded, "Like I said, some weird places have appeared here recently. Things are getting so tangled, I dunno what to do."

"Uh...by the way, why are you standing so far from us? You better not be planning to high-tail it if something does come up."

The bear blushed, "Of course not! I mean. Uh, I can't stand too close, you know. I'd get in your way."

"Hrrrm," Yosuke grumbled, then went back to looking at the strange place, "Man, they really went all out on this, but out of all the places in town, why'd they replicate this one?"  
"How should I know? This is reality for the one who's here."

I explained, "This world seems to pick up on human weakness, this place is likely from Saki's mind."

Yosuke pondered that a moment until he realized, "If this is our shopping district, we're not far from Saki-senpai's..." He charged off and we followed, coming to an old building that was some kind of store that looked like it didn't get very many customers. Of all the places in the area, that one seemed detached somehow, like Mayumi-san's room the color palette seemed slightly eschew. Not to mention the door was a red and black portal. Yosuke apparently knew the place, "I knew it! This is the liquor store that Senpai's parents run. Does this mean Senpai disappeared here? What could've happened?  
Jeering, gossip, distaste, blame, jealousy, all seem to pool and come to a head near the door. It was a familiar feeling, but different. The weakness and pain were different, but they were the same. "Yosuke, get away from the door!"

Yosuke looked back, confused, "What?"

Teddie sensed them too, "Shadows! I had a feeling they were going to attack!"

Two blue masks appeared in the depths of the portal, worn by piles of goo that poured out and smacked into the ground with a loud splat. They then rose up and rushed at Yosuke, though he reflexively stumbled back in the reasonable fear and shock he was going through at the moment. They pulled back however, collapsing in on themselves to form giant balls, the only feature of which other than their gaudy color was an enormous mouth, hungry and arrogant, mocking.

And there was the strange sensation again, that feeling lingering on the edge of my perception, that sensation of failure, bordered by determination. Very similar to, but not my own feelings. Yosuke was in danger because I had failed Saki, and the announcer before her. I wasn't about to fail him. My mind felt cloudy with self-doubt, but a certainty pushes that aside. I wasn't going to fail again.

The last words I could recall Mayumi-san saying echoed in m mind, recalled in a dream but real none the less, "Promise me. Promise me..." What I had promised I couldn't remember, but as I charged those two abominations I got the feeling I was on the right track. A stiff blow with my bat staggered one that was diving at Yosuke, and other sent the second bobbing backwards. They came at me, tongues reaching out to ensnare me, but a quick step to the side and a sharp blow downwards forced the left one's mouth to close. It reeled backwards, at the pain of biting its own tongue as the other dashed at me with rage-filled determination.

It was coming too fast, I could only block the attack and watch as the thing pulled my weapon away and through it aside. Coming again, its tongue probed at me, finding a grasp on my right arm. Guided by instinct I threw all my weight down and pulled the tongue low, where I stomped down hard. It let go, and without hesitation I stepped onto its lower jaw with my free foot. It tried to bite but I'd expected it, the padding of my gripping gloves making it easy to hold back the upper teeth. The other was recovering so I didn't give any pause for a counterattack. Lifting my other foot from the tongue, I stepped forward, pushing the top jaw back until I could plant a foot there. With all the power of the strongest muscles in the human body, my legs and weight forced the jaw further and further back until it snapped. The shadow screamed jawlessly in agony until I silenced it mercilessly with a crushing blow to the part of the skull the wound had weakened. I was stood consumed by the moment to realize I was absorbing part of it through my left arm, which I had habitually struck with.

My survival instincts in full swing, I dashed for my bat as the remaining one rushed at me, we reached our targets at the same times, sending both teeth and weapon flying. I'd miscalculated and my dive for the weapon resulted in me on my back, with that thing looming overhead. It tried to snare me, and again I blocked with my right arm. This time it lurched forward for a bite, only to meet a swift kick to the bottom incisors. With my arm trapped and the thing so close it was all I could do, kick desperately over and over. Suddenly, Yosuke, my bat in hand, knocked the thing away with an upward swing to the creature. It recovered fast and lunged for him, but I was on my feet too fast, introducing my foot once more to his lower jaw and his teeth to his tongue again. I charged in, grabbing its large upper lip and pulling myself on top of it, my weight forcing it to the ground. Pinning it there I struck it over and over with my free (left) hand. I kept pounding and pounding for what seemed like an eternity. Lost in the rush of the moment, I didn't stop until the thing dissolved and I fell to the ground, even then I almost went for another one.  
"Whoa... Wh-What was that!? Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Yosuke had run over and was gawking at me.

I turned towards the store, "Didn't I tell the class on my first day? Martial arts is a hobby."

Teddie ran over, "Yosuke. You're troubling Sensei!

Yosuke gave the bear a strange look, "S-Sensei?"

"Gosh almighty! You're amazing, Sensei! I am one impressed bear! No wonder you survived the clear time! This is really something. Don't you think so, Yosuke?  
"Dude, you call him Sensei and then don't show me any respect?"

"Sorry... " Teddie replied sheepishly.

Yosuke patted me on the back, "All right, if we keep this up, and I think we'll be fine from here on out. Now, let's get back to the investigation!" He started wandering closer to the door, "Man... I wonder what could have happened to Senpai here."  
I was looking around, convinced I was being watched, when voices came from nowhere, just like the had done with the announcer, "I wish Junes would go under... It's all because of that store..."

Yosuke was understandably alarmed, "Wh-What the?"

Another set of voices, "Oh, I heard that Konishi-san's daughter is working there."

"Oh my... How could she, with her family's business suffering like it is?"

"I heard their sales have gone downhill because of Junes."

Yosuke looked scared, nearly out of his wits, "S-Stop it..."

Something was odd, it didn't feel right. Sure, it must have been Saki remaining pain, but why was it still around and active? Why was it ringing so close to Yosuke? It was pretty clear it was effecting him, and I had my suspicions why. The whole thing was getting more dangerous than I had thought.

The voices didn't relent, "That poor father... to have his own daughter working for the enemy. What a troublesome child."

Yosuke, jarred, turned to Teddie, "Hey... Hey, Ted! You said that this place is reality for those that are here, right!? So does that mean this was Senpai's reality when she wandered in here?

Teddie frowned, "I...only know about what's over here."

Yosuke was going through the usual stages of self-confrontation and trauma. Fear, then anger, "Fine, whatever's going on here. We'll find out ourselves!"

He marched in and we followed, bad feeling about it and all. The inside was a strange place, seeming like a normal liquor store around the walls, but the rest of the place was over the top with it. Kegs were everywhere stacked in towers with big bold writing on the sides and six packs strewn about.

Suddenly there was the sound of a man yelling, "Saki, how many times do I have to tell you?"

Yosuke was shocked, "This is... Senpai's dad."

"You know what the neighbors say about you, right? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You're the eldest daughter of a family who's owned this store for generations! Is it the money? Or did you meet some guy there? Just tell me why you have to work THERE, of all places!"

Pieces were starting to fall into place, my fears were not so slowly becoming reality, Yosuke entered the denial phase of his trauma, "I...I can't believe this! She seemed like she had fun at work! She never said anything like this to me! You're telling me THIS was how Senpai really saw things?" He spotted some photos and ran over. They were in pieces on the counter near the register.

He picked the pieces up, confirming my fear. Back in Mayumi-san's room I hadn't been able to move anything, but she had ripped out the faces on the posters. This place had become Yosuke's pain.

And that pain had gone all the way to the sorrow stage, "These photos... Hey is this? It's the photo we took the other day with the other part-timers at Junes! Wh-Why's it cut up like this?  
The torn scraps of photo showed Saki-senpai smiling with Yosuke next to her. A voice saw the chance to attack, and struck below the belt, sounding like Saki, "I never had the chance to say it..."

Yosuke was on the edge of tears, "Is that...Senpai's voice?"

"No Yosuke, this place does that. It's..." I tried to tell him but he wasn't listening.

The voice had his full attention, locking him in the one snare he couldn't escape, "I always wanted to tell Hana-chan..."

"Huh? Me?"

"...that he was a real pain in the ass. I was nice to him just because he was the store manager's son, that's all! But he takes it completely the wrong way and gets all enthusiastic! What a dip!"

"P-pain in the ass...?"

I tried to break through, "Yosuke don't listen!"

The voice still had him, "Who cares about Junes, anyway? Because of that store, our business is ruined, my parents hate me, the neighbors talk behind my back! I wish everything world just disappear!"

That part was partly the truth, not distorted by Yosuke's fears. I couldn't call it a lie, but that rest. The pieces were falling into place, everything I had seen and felt painting a picture of clarity. I could understand her pain, and it brought me all the closer to helping Yosuke. The card outline on my left palm felt warm, the pieces of someone's pain that I had taken in outside were clear to me now. They were pieces of Saki, devoured by the weakness of her tormentors. Had they indirectly killed her? Were her neighbors and family her true killers? What the hell where shadows exactly?  
Yosuke lashed out at the voices, trying not to cry, "I-It's a lie!This can't be! Senpai's not like that!"

The twisted voice of an expected guest floated in form the front door, mockingly pretending to cry, "It's...so sad... I feel so sorry for myself...Boo hoo... Actually, I'm the one who thinks everything's a pain in the ass. Hahaha..."  
Teddie couldn't believe it, "H-Huh? Two Yosukes?  
Sure enough, there was another Yosuke across the room, his face painted with the expression of a supreme jackass, Yosuke protested, "Who are you!? I-I wouldn't think that!"

I watched the situation like a hawk, realizing full well that at that point, it was best for Yosuke to let it play out, let him confront himself, the darkness mocking him. "Hahaha... Yeah, right. How long are you going to keep deluding yourself? Screw the shopping district, and Junes too! You're sick of everything, especially living out in the sticks!?

"What're you saying...? That's not true, I-"

"You put on a good show of being carefree and happy-go-lucky 'cause you're so terrified of being alone. The more the merrier, right? You've gotta be surrounded by people to block out the pain of isolation. And what about checking out this world for Saki-senpai's sake? Hah! I know the real reason you came snooping..."

"S-Stop it!"

"Hahaha! Why so panicked? I thought I was spouting bullshit! Or maybe-"

"That's enough!" I commanded, stepping forward, it was he time to strike.

Yosuke looked at me in shock, "Neir-san? What...?"

"You already know." I glared at him, "This place is turning your darkness against you. This is how Saki died. It's the fate that nearly took the announcer, before she faced it."

"No...that's...he can't know..."

The shadow gloated, "Oh but I DO know everything you're thinking! Why's that...? Because I AM you! You just came because you thought it sounded like a good time! What else is there to do out in this shithole? A world inside the TV-now that's exciting. You didn't have a single other reason for coming here, did you?

"That's not true...Stop...Stop it..."

I looked him in the face, "Make him stop it. You want to scream in rage at yourself don't you? Your facing the part of yourself that you hate, take the chance." This was dangerous, the thing was going to attack, but it was what Yosuke needed.

The shadow kept going. "You're just trying to act like a big shot! I should know, I'm you... Your shadow... There's nothing I don't know about you!"

Yosuke pushing past me and shoved the shadow to the ground, "Screw that! I don't know you! You can't be me, you son of a bitch!"  
The shadow stood up, enjoying the pain, "Say it again."

"YOU'RE NOT ME!"

"You're right. I'm not you anymore see?" dark forms started to surround the copy, begin absorbed into and forming a huge frog-like creature with a humanoid upper body. "I'm me now! I am a shadow! The true self!"

Yosuke suddenly had no strength and staggered backward, collapsing. I stepped in the thing's way with steely determination in my eyes, the pain of Saki Konishi as my weapon, and a keen sword it was. I glanced at the sight of a warrior emerging from the shadows. The presence I had felt that shared my feelings of failure. He wore a helmet resembling something from a Japanese superhero show like Kamen Rider and an long dark blue trenchcoat. His weapon was a spear with a giant tip that looked more like a giant combat knife. He lingered there, sharing my determination, urging me to strike.

I glared at the shadow and then down at my throbbing hand, the power of her hurt pulsing there, "I understand your pain, I understand her pain. Yosuke, ask yourself. Why are those pictures on the counter if she tore them? Why is the father yelling? Understand as I do. Picture it with me, let it come as clearly as it is in my mind." The shadow stood there, disbelieving, frozen. "Like her father said, she could get a job anywhere, so why there. It's not that much more money really, surely not worth the pain she'd naturally be put through everyday. Why did she never quit? What would the daughter of a dying store kept in her family for generations possibly gain? I'll tell you: progress. The store that would one day be hers was going to die, the tradition gone. How could she fix that? She can't. Things had to change. She had to save what she could: the tradition. After all the location doesn't matter. Dad always said that what mattered was the service, the customer." my gaze went to the picture in shreds on the counter, "That only way she could save that, was to take her family tradition to the liquor store that would survive, change that part of Junes into something her family could take ride in. She wanted her father to do it, after all teenagers can't get hired to manage liquor stores, even in malls." I stared at the shadow again, "Some people are shortsighted though, can't understand anything, least of all change. She understood that better than most. So she understood what you were going through. I bet everyone in the shopping district and all their kids were on your case, just like they were with her for working with you."

Yosuke was crying openly, "How can you know that? What about?"

"That voice that this place created from your own doubts. You can't tell me that's not the one thing you were most terrified to hear her say. Think about it though. The yelling, the torn picture, how she acted around you." I looked at him, "Yosuke, she could never love you, but she never lied to you."

The shadow roared in fury, "Shut up! I'll smash everything that makes me sad! I'll never let them treat me like that again!"

Time seemed to freeze, I noticed the warrior from the shadows was gone, but I felt his hands on my shoulders as he floated above me, in my lifted hand he placed a card depicting him. I knew then and understood, "Persona...you're not my mask...not my strength, but we both understand pain and there's plenty to purge in this place." Time resumed and the Shadow Yosuke surged forth for the kill. I held the card aloft and offered the pain of the fallen as a testament to power, "Saki Konishi! Witness my redemption! AWAKEN! IZANAGI!"

My hand descended instinctively, shattering the card on my waiting face as I donned a mask that would empower me to face the world. The mask became something more than metaphor, forming Izanagi's helmet around my head and as my arms moved to block the incoming attack, my body was anointed with his coat and armored vestments, my hands holding his weapon in a defense as iron as my will.

And block I did, the massive arm of the creature slamming hard into my spear, which I quickly turned to bring the edge forward in the a repelling slash that forced him back.

Yosuke stammered,"Dude...did you just...?"

Battle was on however, and that fight became my entire world. The instant the shadow stumbled I lunged forward, beating it further back with biting jabs and keeping it off balance with heavy slashes thrown in with keen savagery. In desperation it leaped upwards and came down, unleashing a gust of air that sent me careening into the glass doors of the freezers lining the back wall and Yosuke rolling into the far corner of the room. I was down and too dazed to stand fast enough to avoid the enormous tackle that it followed up with, pinning me to the shelves of beer behind me.

I called upon Izanagi's power, lashing out with an eruption of electricity that sent the beast back with howls of pain and causing every can around me that was hit to explode in a spray of alcohol. But it was power that had intoxicated me. That same power let me dash to the side and slash the leg of the shadow for a light hit and while it grabbed the wound, come around with a more devastating blow to its back.

I gotten behind it, but it was quick to seek retribution, throwing itself into me and carrying me through the front wall, with me slashing and kicking the whole way. If the front hadn't been mostly glass and the security bars held by rusty bolts, I would've been killed. I still fell limp though, and the dark side of my friend lifted me high into the air and threw me clear across the street with a victory cry.

By some miracle I was still holding my spear, something that brought joy to he Izanagi in me, that part of me grinned, "Time to get to the heart of the matter!" With all his skill and strength I threw that spear, catching the unsuspecting Shadow squarely in the chest.

Its cry of pain brought a rush of arrogance to me and I marched forward, "If you thought The Rock was electrifying!" I shot bolts of lighting into the end of the spear, the all metal weapon channeling it into the very core of his being as I marched relentlessly forward, never letting up. The thing began to char, "CAN YOU SMELL....WHAT THE NEIR...IS..._COOKIN'_?"

I stopped and the newly defenseless creature slumped to its knees as I reached it. It was still not quite defeated. That was amended rather abruptly with an angry left hook to the face. Izanagi suddenly stepped away from me and picked up his weapon, taking it and his form back into the shadow. I looked to the hands of mine that did such destruction and his card was there again, briefly before it was absorbed into my hand. Looking at my hands and the limp shadow that had returned to human form, I felt sick and nearly lost what little I had eaten that day.

Yosuke came stumbling out of the building. "What...happened?"

His shadow forced itself to stand and glared desperately at him.  
"You...You're...not me..."

Teddy came out as well, offering some comfort, "That thing came from you, Yosuke... You have to admit it or it'll go berserk again."

Yosuke seemed reluctant to accept it, so I tried to console him, "Everyone's the same inside. Everyone has darkness."

"Is that... supposed to be comforting? Dammit... it hurts to face yourself... I knew it wasn't lying, but I was so ashamed that I didn't want to admit it." He looked his shadow in the eye, "You're me... and I'm you. When you get down to it, all of this is me." The shadow nodded, forming a persona that resembled a superhero based off the other form, "This is my Persona...Jiraiya... When we heard Senpai's voice... I had always wondered if that was something Senpai had been keeping deep down inside... Haha... 'He was a real pain in the ass,' huh? Of course she thought that, I was like her brother. What a way to find out. Geez, this is so embarrassing." He looked to me and smiled, "If you weren't here, I don't know what woulda happened. Thanks." Finally, something dawned on him. "Did the others face their other selves too? Like how it just happened to me?  
Teddie replied instead, "I think so. The Shadows here were originally born from humans. Sometimes the fog clears. Then they all go berserk... And you saw what happens next. A strong-willed Shadow draws others to it. And th big mass of Shadows kill the host."

It made sense about the fog thing finally, "So that's why people die when it gets foggy in our world. And why all those shadows cane after Mayumi-san." At the memory, a sad expression crossed my face.

Teddie seemed to notice it, and that Yosuke was having trouble standing, "You guys look pretty worn out. This world isn't made for humans. It's not comfortable for you here. I don't hear any more voices. I think we're done with this place. Let's go back."  
Yosuke winced but was resolute, "First let's get this straight... Senpai and that Yamano lady were thrown in here, and since they couldn't get out, they wandered around... After a while, they shadow thing came out of them, the fog cleared, it went berserk, and it ended up killing them. Does that sound about right? So if I'd been here until the fog cleared, I woulda been in much deeper trouble?"  
I nodded, "Except the fat I saved Yamano from her shadow, that's right."

"Dammit...! Senpai was stuck here all alone... No one could save her..."  
Teddie once again came with comforting words, "Yosuke, she disappeared when the fog lifted, but she was safe before that. No shadows attacked her. They attacked us, though. Maybe they're keeping a close eye on us. They might see people who investigate this place as enemies. It'll be dangerous, but we might be able to fight them! We might save people!"  
"Are you saying, if anyone else gets thrown in here, we can save them before they disappear!? Like how Bryan just saved me?  
I smiled, "That seems to be the case, but we need to catch the one who's throwing people in here and make him stop."

He nodded, a smile on his face, "Yeah. I'm finally starting to understand what's going on."  
Teddie seemed deep in thought, "U-Um... Hey, can I ask something too...? If shadows are born from humans, what was Teddie born from?"

I looked at the bear, unsure of what to say, Yosuke answered for me, "You don't even know where you came from!? How should we know?  
"I know some things. Mostly about this world... But I don't know anything about myself. To be honest, I never thought about it until now. Will you guys... come back here...?"  
I patted the little guy on the head, "Of course. We have a chance to solve after all. Plus, if you might start being lonely I'd hate to leave you like that."

The bear was overjoyed, "Okay, let's get back to where you came in and I'll let you out. But there's one thing. I'll be waiting for you guys there from now on. You need to come in from the same place every time, So we can meet up. You could come in from somewhere else, but you might show up somewhere I couldn't get to you. Then you'd be dooooooomed... Got it!?  
"I figured as much." I nodded.  
It wasn't long before I was out and we each headed home in the rain. On the way back, I passed the riverbank and spotted Yukiko in her kimono sitting on a roofed picnic area, staring off into space as she sang a little tune quietly, it sounded a lot like the tune she had been humming a view days before. The words were too quiet to hear so I moved closer. It was raining, so it seemed odd she'd be there. Especially since her mom was home. She was deep in thought, but noticed my approach.

She'd decided to treat me like everyone else, which was a bit painful, "Oh, Bryan-san, are you surprised to see me? My parents sent me out on an errand and I was just taking a break."

"I'm sorry, if I wasn't running late I could have done it."

"Don't worry about that, I manage." She struggled for a topic, "So...are you getting used to everything?"

"Somewhat. There's a few things I can't seem to get to fit right, but all in all things are fine."

"I'm glad to hear it. You know nothing about Inaba, so it must be hard for you. I've never been out of Inaba, much less Japan, so I can't relate." She glanced to her feet, then came up with a new topic, "Are you getting along with Chie? You've been talking a lot lately."

"Hard to tell right now, but we're getting there I guess." Why was she being so distant? I couldn't even sense her emotions in the least, that was how good a job she was doing shutting me out.

"I see...Chie's very supportive you know, she always tries to give me that little extra push I need. We had homeroom together last year too and I still remember how we'd cut class sometimes." She looked down again, "We should get going, I have to make the arrangements with the head chef after all. The inn needs me right now."

I didn't press and we walked home quietly. I went about my work in silence. Not long after I was going back through the lobby to sweep it when I say something that made my blood boil. The media had come to the inn and was interviewing Yukiko. I could sense her discomfort so clear it was like she was calling for me.

"Oh...well...I'm only filling in temporarily..." she explained bashfully. She was still in charge?

"Someday though...that aside, wow! You are looking gorgeous in that kimono! You must have a lot of male visitors."

Her embarrassment screamed out so loud I nearly fell over, she flushed red and a lot of chaos rolled around in her head, "Huh, no...umm...."

The reporter started rambling more and more about her looks and sex appeal and Yukiko was visibly uncomfortable, inside she was nearly in tears. Before she started to cry, I started around to the side of the camera and suddenly yanked it upwards from behind, pressing the off button. I ejected the battery pack so the cameraman couldn't just resume.

The reporter was pissed, "Hey, what the hell! I'm doing an interview here!"

"Really, all I hear is you harassing a teenage girl with inappropriate comments about her looks, and ignoring her distress. I may have nothing to do with this inn or her," I lied, "but I won't stand and watch you treat a lady like this."

I suddenly noticed Yukiko looked even closer to tears, but oddly, inside she wasn't as stressed. The reporter didn't drop the issue, "Ever hear of marketing? Her parents put her out here everyday, taking advantage of those good looks to make money. Even they know people want to see all they can of hot pieces like-"

Yukiko ran off crying, and I snapped, shoving the camera into the cameraman's hands and throwing the battery pack out of a nearby window. I fought the urge to grab the man with every fiber of my being, instead glaring at him with a gaze that I imagine might even make Batman scream like a girl, "People like you make me sick! Her parents put her out her out of tradition and pride. They want the whole world to she how beautiful she is, to appreciate the elegance and majesty she's developed over the years. But people like you don't look at her and see the beautiful and unique flower on display or the pride of the family it represents. All you see is something you'd like to throw down on a futon and ravage!" I slammed open the door and pointed outside, "The innkeeper might not say this out of good manners, but get the hell out."

"On who's authority-"

"Get out before I get myself arrested!"

The reporter grumbled as he left with his cameraman and I turned to see Mr. Amagi, he started to say something and I could tell he was grateful I had done that and without connecting myself to their reputation, but I stopped him, "Sorry. You can throw me out if you like."

He laughed, "Why would I? I was about to do that."

At that I laughed uncomfortably, "Don't get the wrong idea sir, I value your daughter as a friend and that's it. I won't lie and say I don't find her attractive. I only spoke in her defense and defense of your tradition."

"Thank you." he was clearly a bit surprised.

"And your parenting of course, that guy was pushing it."

Mr. Amagi laughed again, "Yes, true." suddenly got serious, "Neir-san, I don't mind you having feelings for my daughter, but promise me if you decide to act on them, you'll move out first."

I wasn't sure what to say, "Of course sir."

He walked away and I strode quietly to my room, deep in thought for several hours. To have something to do, I worked on the reply to Naoto-chan's letter. It probably came off as a bit muddled, distracted, and mostly confused. I rewrote it several times, eventually giving it up altogether after a few hours. Instead I decided to write one to Yukiko, not a love letter really, but just getting my thoughts down on paper. I was about to start writing when the Midnight Channel came on. With all the chaos of the day, I'd forgotten it was even raining. I forgot a lot of things when, clear as day, I saw Yukiko on the screen.

* * *

Elsewhere, in a place neither dream nor reality, between mind and matter, a card in one person's fortune flipped over. Knowledge and the threat of too much power had become Bryan's present and the next page of his story was about to be written, The next card was the Chariot. A battle lay in his future, one that would require all involved to possess incredible resolve and willpower. Things had begun rolling, and Bryan was inching ever closer to the card of his demise. After all, he was the Hanged Man, the Dying God.

Next Chapter: Rolling Onward

_Whew, that was a hard chapter to write, both due to required length and because I find it had to write Teddie at this point in the story. So if you haven't guessed, the other crossover element is a taste of Digital Devil Saga, in the sense that Bryan turns into personas and seemly devours monsters (well, pain). There's a tad of Kamen Rider influence there as well though. In fact that scene where he say "Witness my redemption!" was inspired by a scene in the early episodes of Kamen Rider Kuuga. You may wonder why I changed his power from the powers he had in the other, Well in the other fic you may notice less and less emphasis on his use of personas, to be honest it was getting so bad that they were almost useless. This way there's a larger focus on personas, but he keeps his unique power. There's also a plot point explaining why he can actually 'wear' personas, but that comes later._


	11. Chapter 10: Attack of the DANG SHIFT KEY

A/N: Yay! Ten chapters! Quick Q&A section:

Q – How the hell do you pronounce Bryan's last name?

A - Well folks you pronounce Bryan's last name like "near". It really has no significance, I just kinda made his last name the first thing that came to mind.

Q – How did Yukiko end up on the Midnight Channel if Bryan stopped the interview that showed her on TV?

A – He stopped the interview, not the airing. You can assume either it was broadcasting live (in this chronology it has to have been) or that they edited the tape (which, if you look back at the last chapter, he never actually took from the camera while he had it).

Q – What's up with the whole tune in his head thing? Is that the 'Song of Fate' from the first version?

A – Yes. All will be clear in time. Fun Fact: I'm actually working on getting that actually written and composed, but I can't promise anything but lyrics eventually. It's a waltz.

Q – Do you even proofread this stuff?

A – Um....sorry? I'll try harder?

On a side note, I'd like to thank Shatter Heart, a .net site that covers jRPGs, for supplying a game script to help serve as a guide to the events and dialogue in the early portions of the game. As for the theme song for this chapter, we have another song from The Posies, "I Guess You're Right". You'll notice this chapter is pretty similar to the original version of this fic. This is due to the fact that several of the events within the "Yukiko Arc" are going to happen relatively the same way, although fights will be different the social interaction segments are nearly unchanged. After the end of the "Yukiko Arc", the story will diverge from the first fic a bit more.

Chapter Ten: Rolling Onward

I tried to control my panic the best I could, after all the victims evidently didn't vanish right away. I still had to put my mind at ease though. While I didn't think I cared for her romantically as her father suspected, I had still grown fond of her for some reason. She was kind to the point of sacrificing her own happiness for others, smart, and that smile....I mean, she was a good person, even though she wouldn't let me know her very well I felt like I needed to help her, especially since someone might try to through her into a nightmare realm of her own construction. Maybe, if I could help her before she got thrown in she would be safe.

Luckily the light was on in her room, normally she would be doing managerial duties until one in the morning, maybe what the reporter said was untrue, no she had confirmed it. Putting confusion aside I knocked lightly on the door, "Taish...I mean Yukiko-san, are you okay? You seemed distressed earlier."

I breathed a sigh of relief when she replied, but only because she was there, her words brought little comfort, "I'm fine Neir-san...th...thank you for earlier." Her voice was cracking, whether from being shy or sad was uncertain, but either was bad.

"Umm...I heard that reporter say you were still the manager. Isn't your mother back? Is she okay?"

"Yes." She said strangely, with too much affirmation...it was a tone I'd never heard, not even in the many Japanese dramas I tended to enjoy in my free time, "She's fine, it's just with the announcer dying and all she felt it was best for the inn for the person that was managing then to step out of the public eye for a while."

I frowned hard, my voice heavy. She hadn't so much as invited me to open the door or told me to wait to do so until she was decent or something, she was keeping a wall between us. "If this sounds rude I'm don't mean it to be, but isn't that a bit cowardly? What about you?"

"It's for the sake of the inn. I'm okay. I've managed so far."

I rested my head on the door, a little heavier than I intended, I could almost here Yukiko jump on the other side, some how I pictured her sitting at a desk or something...having been crying, "Sorry. You know...about those guys earlier...about...anyway just promise you'll be careful. Don't work too hard, and make sure if you see any creeps like those you'll avoid them."

"Neir-san, you promised not to worry too much."

"Sorry for that to. Good night."

"Goodnight...." her tone sounded like she wanted to say something.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

Annoyed I turned to see Miku-san. She had a smile on her face. I imagine my face was mildly comical at noticing she'd been watching, but I wasn't in the mood. I walked by and to the stairs that led to the floor I was on, "It's not like that."

"Hm." she almost laughed.

The nest morning, I chipped in a bit as I looked for Yukiko, after all it was nearly time for school. I found her up to her neck in guests at the front entry. She was warm and friendly to them, and seemed to take a measure of joy in meeting new people, though she was terribly shy and stuttered a bit when they actually replied to her. It was kind of cute, and would have been a great sight if she wasn't so tired and secretly scared out of her wits. I had to shake the thoughts out of my head and get my eye back on the smile...I mean ball.

I approached during a slow moment, "Yukiko, you should get changed, we'll be late for school."

"Go on without me. I'd forgotten about the big group reservation today so we'll be really swamped today. I might not even make it tomorrow."

I knew she'd argue with me staying, so I simply nodded and went to my room to change into my uniform, my work uniform that is, and call the school to tell them I'd be missing due to the rush. It wouldn't likely go over well with my hosts, but this was life and death. Not long after I started working, Yosuke called.

"Dude, where are you?"

"I had to stay and help at the inn. I'm keeping an eye on Yukiko after a little incident."

"I saw that interview yesterday, they were broadcasting live. I'm guessing that was you that caused the 'sudden signal loss'?"

I nodded habitually, "Yeah."

"By the way did you watch it last night?"

"Yes I did. They featured someone I know."

I was speaking carefully to avoid anyone overhearing and thankfully Yosuke could read between the lines, "Yukiko?"

"Yeah. I want you to talk to Chie. Show it to her you know? But don't go anywhere. See if you can ask Ted about it. Can you do that for me?"

Apparently Yosuke was alone, "Sure man. if she's really shown up on TV and someone tries the same thing again, then you might be able to catch the culprit behind all this. Even if it is that place that's killing the victims. If someone's using that world as a weapon, that's unforgivable. We can't rely on the police on this. Who'd believe that the murderer kills people by throwing them into the TV?"

"The first and last line of defense as the action movies say."

Yosuke laughed, "Glad to be on board. By the way, I tried sticking my hand in the TV last night, the way you did, and it actually worked."

"Probably because of your persona."

"Yeah, but you managed to go inside the TV and get your Persona first. Way before me, and I don't even glow. I feel like, as long as you're with me, the culprit doesn't stand a chance."

"Stop you're making me blush."

"Haha. Well I just wanted to let you know I try my best."

I felt a bond forming with Yosuke, and remembering the sensation from the announcer and Igor's words, I realized I had grown a little stronger.

After I hanged up I spent the rest of the day trying my best to work hard, keep an eye on Yukiko, and not get spotted by her. The call back came after school and I went into the bathroom to take it privately, Yosuke had checked with Teddie, "Nothing. Nobody's in there. Is Yukiko still there?"

I heard yet another ring at the front and tuned it out, "Yeah she's been working the front all day, tons of people. No one could possibly snatch her with all these people watching."

Yosuke sighed, "But Chie confirmed it. If anyone would know for sure if it was her would be Chie."

"So Yukiko appeared on the Midnight Channel without being in the TV world. The last two appeared before their bodies were found, so this only confirms what we know. They aren't on the screen. The them on that appears there has to be the other them, their shadow. Teddie said that there was only Shadows there right? Shadows come from humans. Yukiko's shadow was the one we saw, and that means the day after...I gotta go!"

I quickly ended the call and went to the lobby looking for Yukiko. She wasn't there and there was a line forming. A waitress was trying her best to handle the customers. When she saw me she asked, "Have you seen Yukiko?"

Trying my best to stay calm I shook my head, "Not since a few minuted ago before I went to the bathroom. Where did you last see her?"

"I don't know, I just came in and saw she wasn't here."

I looked everywhere, looked for a solid hour, ignoring calls from Yosuke and worrying my ass off. Finally, I retreated to a quiet corner, just in time for another call from Yosuke. I nearly yelled into the phone, "She's gone!"

Yosuke sighed with concern, "I thought so. Don't reject my calls like that man, you had me and Chie on pins and needles." I guess the reveal had gone well, "Let's think about this calmly. We know the victims are safe until the fog clears, and since it's not going to be raining enough for fog for a while, we don't have to worry too much. Teddie said my shadow only attacked me because we were investigating, so she's okay for now, probably just a bit scared."

I saw where he was going, "We should check on her on the Midnight Channel, rest up, and get some supplies."

"Right. I don't even have any weapon beside a big wrench." Yosuke started, but Chie must have suddenly grabbed the phone.

"She's in there right? I'm coming to." I heard Yosuke protesting.

"Put me on the speaker phone if you're not near a crowd." I asked and she complied, "Yosuke calm down, Chie has the right to come too, as much so as you did when you went in."

I could feel Chie's worried smile, "Thanks Bryan, I know where we can get some weapons too. Meet me in the Shopping District tomorrow."

"Right. I'm hanging up. But Chie..."

"Yeah?"

"You have to stay behind us and follow our instructions to the letter. You don't know what kind of dangers are in there, we do. The moment you break that promise we turn back and leave you behind in the real world. Understood?"

She agreed.

It was getting late and Yukiko's parents were worried out of their minds. Eventually her mother sent me and her dad to look around the town. We looked everywhere, even though I knew where she was. The worried expression on my face was totally genuine though, added to even more by the concern I would miss vital information on the Midnight Channel. Thankfully Mr. Amagi called it quits before that could happed.

When I finally did check the Midnight Channel, I saw Yukiko in a dress like a princess would wear to a royal ball. She was really bubbly and giddy, the opposite of the Yukiko that was shown to the world and an exaggerated form of what I saw deep within her everyday...just without the balance of the rest of her personality. There was no doubt I was looking at her shadow.

It held up a microphone up and smiled, pronouncing every world in the dialect of nobles, "Good evening! Tonight Princess Yukiko has a big surprise. I'm going to go score myself a hot stud! Welcome to 'Not a Dream, Not a Hoax!: Princess Yukiko's Search for Her Prince Charming!' And I came prepared!" She hid her crotch like it was a naughty secret, then pressed her arms together to show off her breasts, which were already being showed off by the dress, "I've got my lacy unmentionables on stacked from top to bottom!" I brushed off the naughty thoughts of Yukiko in lacy undies and kept watching, "I'm out to catch of whole harem and the best of the lot is going to be all mine!" That caught me off guard...her shadow...was a horn dog?, "Weeeell? Here I go!" She ran like a princess through a fairy tale into a grand yet somehow menacing castle.

I sighed, wishing I could just go to Junes right then and there, or at least figure out what TV she could be in. It was too fast and there were too many guests for her to have been kidnapped and taken away or thrown into the same TV that Mayumi-san had been. It made no sense. Wracking my brain, I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. No possible method occurred to me. I'd have to just wait and follow the plan.

The next day when Chie lead us into a metalworks I was glad I did. Weapons and armor were everywhere, it was like stepping back a thousand years into medieval times.

Yosuke was shocked that there was such a place in Inaba. "Wh-What kinda shop is this...?"

Chie shrugged, "A metalworks... I guess? They sell all sorts of metal crap... like katanas and stuff."

"Doesn't that seem weird to you!? Why would you know about a place like this anyway? Oh, I get it... You watched one too many kung-fu movies, and..."

Chie got defensive, "It's not that at all! I overheard some guys in our class talk about it. They said this place sells weapons and armor." She spotted a suit of plate armor. "Here, this one looks good. Oh, but it might be too heavy... " She continued to browse.

Meanwhile Yosuke looked to me, "Man, what should we get? Hey, mind picking out something for me, too? You're our main asset in battle right now, so I think you should choose whatever makes it easiest for you."

He handed me some money and I combined it with what I had left from the money I brought from home, "Alright, you seem the agile type, how about two daggers?"

"Sounds good."  
I went over to a display and looked over the most affordable range of knives, checking from straightness, balance, amount of flexibility, and for the dreaded 'rat-tail' a means of making display swords that made them cheap, but prone to catastrophic structural failure if used for real. Hell even if they were just swung too hard. It didn't take me long to pick out a good pair for him and a shirt of chain mail for the both of us. His end of the money was gone, so I used my bit to buy a pair of archer's bracers that are used to keep the string from hurting the wielder and a pair of sap gloves, leather gloves with powdered granite in the knuckles often used in security forces. I would have gotten a sword too, but not only did I not have enough money, but I saw little point. I could do fine with what I had, could borrow from Junes, and call forth with Izanagi.

Chie was already checked out when we got up the the register, "I got my stuff all picked out! How about you guys?"

Something occurred to Yosuke, "You know... if we wear this stuff around town, we'll just get arrested. But it's not like we can waltz into Junes with a sack full of gear and expect no one to notice, either."

Chie declared the solution, "Why not conceal them under our uniforms? I don't think people would notice."

I laughed, "Good thing I didn't get that katana. How the hell would I have concealed that?"

Yosuke grinned and nodded, "Okay, let's try that. Alright, let's split up and get ready. The store'll be crowded until the afternoon sale ends, and if we walk around together, the cops might get suspicious."

Chie put on a determined face, "Then I'll see you guys at the Junes food court!"

I called after her, "Don't eat right before or you'll be sluggish!"

I was speaking from experience. Not only that, but if you worked too hard on a full stomach you'd vomit due to your body trying to devote all your energy to heal the overworked limbs and survive. I'd forgotten that on my last trip inside. And that hadn't been good on my digestive tract at all.

We went our separate ways, on my way out, a strange purple door appeared and I heard Igor's voice in my head, "So it finally begins... Now, if you'll give me a moment of your time..."

No one else in the area seemed to notice the sudden door, so I walked over and prepared to unlock it with the key card I'd received, but it opened by itself so I made sure no one was looking and stepped in the walked to the center of the room to see if anything had changed in the short time since my last visit. After a moment I spotted sheet music on the piano, but still no pianist, and the violin case was open but the instrument still unplayed.

Igor smiled, "Welcome back. The catastrophe has already taken human lives in its approach towards you, but you have little to fear. You already have the power to fight against it. Remember how I told you that your ability is strengthened by the connections between you and others? If you strengthen your bonds properly, their power will help you overcome any ordeal. Our role is to facilitate that."

"How?"

Igor frowned, "Unfortunately the path you walk and your fractured future leave us at a disadvantage in that regard."

"What do you mean disadvantage? You're missing some of your power? Because of me?"

"Indeed, for now we are of little use. But to explain, I must ask if you know the nature of the shadows you fight?"

"Yes, they come from humans. It reminds me of a psychological theory from Carl Jung. In psychological terms one's shadow is the suppressed weakness, shortcomings, and instinct. Aspects that weaken us, but when dealt with properly can help us. Much like the dark self that Yosuke confronted in the other world."

"Indeed. These shadows are fragments of the psyche, and they can become persona when used correctly, a mask used to face the dangers of the world. That is my role in this, to give birth to new Personas. By mixing together multiple Persona cards, I can transmute them into a new form... This, in other words, is the fusion of Personas. With your power to understand the will of others you may wield the wills of multiple Personas and use them accordingly."

"But I've only got on right now."

"Yes, but when you defeat an enemy have you not felt pain they represent or have wrought flow into you?"

Thinking about it, I nodded.

He continued, "For now, you are unfortunately denied the ability to forge those fragments and form a complete persona, but soon such a resources will be at your disposal, and you will have an ever growing gallery of masks to call upon."

Margaret motioned to the sheet music on the piano, to my surprised speaking for the first time that I could recall, "My role is simple, but for now just as impeded. I have the power to recall persona from the tune of fate. Any persona you ally with are part of this song and may return to you if you wish, even if you have combined them. Once you have mended more of your fate, please see me when you wish to use this power."

Again delight filled Igor and the long-nosed man chuckled, "Do you recall my words to you before? 'Your fate is uncertain, broken into pieces, and in fulfilling your pact you will reassemble it. If you fail, your future will remain destroyed.' I meant precisely what I said. Defeat in battle is not the only way your journey may come to an end. Please do not forget this."

Speaking of the future, several cards lying on the table had flipped since I was last there. That death card was coming faster than I was comfortable with, "How much time? You've said you can't tell, but how can I trust that?"

"Because you have no other option. I am here to help you Mr. Neir, and that help you desperately need. Until we meet again, I will be looking forward to our next chat." Igor grinned and I appeared outside the door as if I had never entered.

That afternoon I showed up in a thin long sleeved shirt that was basically a hoodie but thinner. It was only a bit chilly really and on most days I sweated a lot in the winter uniform most of the students were still wearing. I was just thankful the chain mail I was wearing beneath breathed well, or it would have been too much. One of the downsides of being from Mississippi is that you get used to really cold weather in the winter and really hot in the summer. My body was still adjusting to the overall warmer climate in Japan.

When I got to the food court, Yosuke was fidgeting, "Dang this armor is cold, chaffs like hell too."

I sighed, "Dude, you're supposed to where a thin shirt underneath it."

He looked at me cluelessly, "Y-yeah, that does make sense."

After Yosuke changed, we made our way to the TV and waited for the area to clear out. I Chie wearing glasses, I looked to Yosuke, annoyed, "You went inside?  
He shrugged, "She insisted. Besides, I had to get her some glasses didn't I? We didn't go past the studio area though."

"That was dangerous, but I guess it's fine." It wasn't fine with me, but I couldn't hold it against him since I had been thinking about going in alone the night before.

Something occurred to Yosuke, "Oh, if you see Bryan here glowing like he's got radiation in his blood don't panic, that's normal for him."

"Glowing blood?" Chie was confused, but everything was made clear, in more ways than one, when we stepped through into the other world, "Whoa, you glow over here? Why?"

I shrugged, uncomfortable, "Don't know, but you can see fine here right?"

"Yeah, these are amazing. It's like the fog doesn't exist!"

I had abandoned my hoodie before I noticed Teddie over in a corner and walked over, "Hey Teddie, figured out anything about yourself?"

"Nope, I think and think and nothing comes out of my head."

"Well, keep trying little fuzzy dude." I gave the little guy a pat on the head, which he appreciated, Chie was about to ask Teddy about Yukiko but I continued, "Yukiko's in this world right? I can tell some thing's different somewhere, but I can't tell from where." I could feel the same feelings I felt coming from Yukiko every day, so familiar there was no mistaking it.

"Wow, sensei, you can do everything! I don't know her name, but yeah, someone was thrown in here, just a bit after I talked to Yosuke yesterday. She's over in that direction."

I knew that direction, I had just come from that way after getting changed, "Based on where the shopping area is here, that would be the direction of the inn! Let's go!"

Away we went, and one brisk hike later loomed the huge castle we had all seen on the Midnight Channel the night before. It was a bit intimidating, but seemed straight out of a fairy tale rather than historically accurate. The Shadow Yukiko had run in there in search of her prince. Princes usually save the common damsel from something and take them away to their castle. Yukiko was so daunted by her life at the inn, that she felt like Cinderella, needing saving from oppression and going to a ball to meet her prince. It hurt me deep inside, but at the time I couldn't tell the difference between her pain that I was sensing and my own.

Chie was stunned at the sight of the towering structure, "What the....? A castle!? Y'think this is the place they showed on the TV last time?"

Yosuke turned to Teddie, "You're positive that no one's behind a camera for that bizarre midnight program?"

"Program...? I don't know. Maybe people on your side can see stuff in this world. It might be that. And I told you before! There's only me and Shadows here! There's no 'camera' stuff going on. This world has been like this from the beginning."

Yosuke was puzzled, "'From the beginning'...? That's what we don't understand!"

"I dunno! Can you guys explain everything about your world? I've never seen this "program" thingy before. So I don't know."

Chie mulled on things,"Well... is that really what's happening? Are we really looking into this world and seeing her dark side? I mean, Yukiko saying stuff like 'score myself a hot stud'? That's not like her at all!"

It was Teddie's turn to be confused, "Score"? "Stud"...?  
Yosuke ignored him. "This is kinda like what happened to me last time...but mine didn't do a TV show."

Chie seemed clueless so I filled her in, "Yosuke faced a dark copy of himself, one of those shadows we mentioned. We did see Yukiko's repressed side on the TV. It's the only way she could have been on it and not be here yet."

Teddy nodded, "There's a lot of stuff I still don't get. But I think that 'program' might happen because of the person who appears on it. Or something like that."

"So... Yukiko is producing that show herself?" Chie scratched her head, "Ugh, I don't get this at all! Hey... Do you feel Yukiko's presence from inside?"

I nodded and so did Teddie, "Yeah, I bet she's at the top, like all princesses waiting to be rescued."

Chie gritted her teeth, "Yukiko's here... I'm going on ahead!" Ignoring my earlier request, she ran inside alone."

Yosuke yelled after her, "Hey, wait! Don't go alone!" He started the pursuit, "Geez! We better follow her!"

We proceeded in and found ourselves in a long corridor, I could sense Chie ahead, but not where she was, Teddie could though, "She hasn't gone far, but her going in stirred up the shadows, you'll have to fight through them before they surround her."

"Got it!" Yosuke nodded, and with a confirming look to me we ran forward.

"Yosuke keep sharp, don't let them surround you."

"Right. I can do this." Yosuke said confidently.

Right around the corner were two of the same kind of shadow we had seen at Saki's area. I tried to call Izanagi's card to me...but I couldn't, "What the..."

Yosuke was already charging in, surprising the creatures from behind. He summoned forth his card as if it were second nature to him and tried to put it on like I did, but it shattered before he reached his face,"Huh?"

Jiraiya, who had been unleashed and was fighting at his side, swung wildly at the shadow without any sense of direction, leaving Yosuke wide open to an attack.

"Watch your back!" I yelled and intercepted with a swing of my bat. I immediately tried to call Izanagi again, but he still wouldn't come. What was going on?

Teddie called out, "Sensei, what's wrong? Call your persona!"

The other beast darted wildly and slammed hard into Yosuke, who managed to get a defense up, but was set rolling into a nearby wall from the force, Jiraiya cushioned the impact and helped Yosuke get to his feet again almost instantly. I was concerned, both for Yosuke and over my inability to tap my power. What was going on? It was pretty easy to guess something about my power made me use personas differently, but why couldn't I call Izanagi at all?

Thinking about it, I doubted myself. If I couldn't use it, how could I be sure I could save Yukiko? The thought of failing when it counted so much was infuriating. I thought of Yukiko's pain permeating the area, and how I'd failed to do anything about it. I blamed myself for it, but it wasn't the time to be emo about it. I took that frustration and gripped my bat hard. I took quick steps forward, much like I had done when fighting Yosuke's shadow, striking sharply and quickly, keeping the blows short but strong so I could avoid any counterattack.

Yosuke was finally getting used to his persona, and sent it in to block the rush of the first shadow, joining Jiraiya with a flurry of wild stabs and slashes as the persona punched relentlessly and finished with a last of wind from the rotor-like stars on his palms. My opponents tried to ensnare my weapon and pull it away but I expected the move and grabbed the top of the bat. With my stronger grip and traction on my side I yanked the creature into a kick to the jaw. I felt stronger than last time, not by a lot, but enough to make that kick push the lower teeth of the off-balance shadow straight through it's tongue. It started bleeding like mad, thrashing about like a fish out of water, so I pounced, dropping the still tangled bat in favor of beating it with my reinforced fists. The shadow dispersed and I felt a surge of power in my left hand. A piece of captured will.

I dusted myself off and retrieved my weapon as we caught our breath. We were still walking, but slower than we would have been moving if we weren't trying to conserve our energy, "Sorry, Yosuke, I had some trouble there, not sure what's going on."

"No big deal, I was fumbling there too. I wonder why I can't use my persona to change like you do?"

"Or why I can't use mine at all right now for that matter. Either way we've gotta move."

Yosuke nodded and we picked up the pace, having recovered ourselves after the last fight, Jiraiya's help, Yosuke's crude but effective skills, and my sheer will to not die, we systematically cut through six more shadows, some of the same and a new one that didn't seem to fit in. I paused at that one and mulled on it. It hadn't radiated Yukiko's pain or Yosuke's...so it was not hard to guess whose it was, "Come on let's hurry!" I shouted.

Not long after we came up to pair of large doors, Teddie, though winded from the running, declared, "She stopped in there, we made it to Chie."

We stormed in to see Chie standing there with a confused expression, and I knew what I had feared was true. Those different shadows were formed from Chie's internal pain, which was growing every second we were in the castle and the world was free to weigh on her. The slightest stimulus might turn her current turmoil into a shadow.

Yosuke called out to her, "Chie! Are you all right!? Chie...?"

Suddenly, Yukiko's voice filled the air, "She said that red looks good on me."

Yosuke looked around, "Yukiko-san!?"

"No, Yosuke, remember the store? If not Chie's imagination, that would still be just Yukiko's shadow ranting."

The voice continued, "I hated my name: Yukiko... "Snow"... Snow is cold and it melts quickly... It's transient, worthless...perfect for me. Apart from inheriting the inn, I'm worthless....nothing. Still... Chie told me that red looks good on me."  
Chie gained a sad expression, "Yukiko..."

The voice wouldn't reply, "For so long, Chie has been the only one who gave my life meaning. She's bright and strong, and she can do anything. She has everything that I don't. Compared to Chie, I'm... I'm... Chie protects me... She looks after my worthless life... And I...I don't deserve any of it. Chie is so kind..." The voice faded away.

Chie was nearly in tears, "Yukiko, I-I..."

"Get ready, Yosuke." I warned, and he was confused until a twisted form of Chie's voice was heard from nearby.

"'Chie is so kind' huh? What a joke."

Chie looked in shock at her shadow, "Wh-Wha?"

Yosuke couldn't believe it, "Oh man is that?"

Teddy assumed an evasive stance, "It's just like Yosuke! She lost control over her suppressed self! Now it's a Shadow!"

The shadow laughed, "Are we talking about THAT Yukiko!? She says I'm protecting her!? She says she's worthless! HAHAHA! That's how it should be, right?"

"What're you saying?" Chie demanded.

"Yukiko's sooo good looking, sooo fair-skinned, soooo feminine. She's the one all the guys drool over. When Yukiko looks at me with such jealousy. Man, do I get a charge out of that. Yukiko knows the score. She can't do anything if I'm not around. I'm better than her! Much, much better!

Chie's emotions were going even more out of control, "No! I have never thought that!"

Yosuke was panicking a little, "Wh-What're we gonna do?"

"The only thing that could distract her thoughts from the chaos within her right now." I said. My power was understanding. I understood her pain, and a pain she hadn't even realized she had.

Yosuke didn't know either, "What's that?" I punched him lightly in the arm, but the sap gloves likely made it sting quite a bit, "OW!"

Hearing Yosuke cry out, Chie turned instantly, her mind jarred from her despair by the only thing that could have done it: thinking someone she cared about was in danger nearby. I ignored Yosuke's protests and walked up to Chie, looking her straight in the eyes.

She tried to guard her thoughts reflexively, she didn't know I could feel her pain, but it was natural to hide what you didn't want seen, "N-No, don't come near me! Don't look at me!"

"Chie, it's okay. We don't hate you for thinking that way. You've thought that and you know it. It's something to be ashamed of. But what as anyone ever defeated by running from it?"

Chie started crying. It was interesting she'd gone through anger, sad, and then the tears of her denial were combined with both, "No... No, this isn't me!"

"W-Wait, stupid! Don't say anything else like that!" Yosuke demanded, ignoring the light wound I'd given him.

The shadow laughed and attacked her mind again, "That's right. I'm the one who can't do anything alone. I can't win as a girl, let alone as a person! I'm pathetic. But Yukiko depends on me! That's why she's my friend. I'll never loosen my grip on her! She's too important to me!"

Chie was nearly beaten, "No...that's-"

I intercepted, hugging Chie firmly and putting myself between her and the shadow. This was a battle in her mind right now. If I helped her win it, it wouldn't turn physical, I looked in her eyes and ignored the shadow behind me. "Chie, look at me! I understand."

Her mind was reeling but in the right direction, "That is not how I think of her!"  
"Stop it Chie! It's alright! I said I understand didn't I? This doesn't change who you are. This is the kind of darkness that is in all of us."

"No!"

The shadow smiled, "So, you're just gonna turn your back and deny me again? But things are different now. When the time comes, I'll be the one left standing. You won't mind, right? I'm still you!"

The word's impact was softer than they would have been, I could feel it, it was time to use those words for my own ends. "Are you going to let that side of you beat you? You claim you don't feel that way, but deep down that's a side of you that you want to forget. Why? Because despite how jealous you are of Yukiko, you still care about her. You know she doesn't deserve that. You hate that you feel that way when she thinks so highly of you. If you don't stand and face this part of you, it will destroy your friendship! Why did you come here if it wasn't to protect that very thing!"

Chie shoved me away, "I don't want to..."

The others were in awe, the shadow was actually backing off, it wasn't saying anything. I looked to Yosuke and he understood.

He grabbed her and looked her in the eyes like I did, but she cringed at the thought of him seeing her like that and looked away, "He's right. I went through the same thing. So I can understand. I mean...everyone has a side like this..."

I pressed in, "You don't hate Yukiko do you?"

"No..."

"You hate yourself."

"YES! I HATE THAT PART OF ME!" her scream soaked in tears.

Yosuke hugged her tight, "It's okay."

She had started to sink into his arms, trying to hide away in her mind and the embrace, so I pushed Yosuke away and looked at her forcefully, "If you're not lying. If you really care about Yukiko and came here to save her. How can that side of you be too strong for you to overcome? You came charging in here willing to risk your life to save her! That part of you just stepped up and tried to stop you! What are you gonna do about it!"

Chie stopped crying instantly and glared at the shadow, she walked over to it, "You're me. I can accept that I suck, but I really do care about Yukiko! Those bad feelings are something I have to deal with, but I can't do that if I keep lying about it."

"You know what you have to do." I stated simply.

The shadow nodded for Chie, they were unified again, Chie cemented it with the words, "I have to be honest with Yukiko. I have to tell her I'm not as strong as she thinks. She might...no, I know Yukiko. She won't hate me for it." The shadow morphed into floating warrior lady with a jumpsuit like in Kill Bill and an armored skirt, it wielded a twin-bladed sword. She had gained the mask that would empower her to face the world. She looked at it in awe as it formed a card and entered her, she turned to us, "I wasn't lying about her being my friend."

Yosuke smiled and laughed a little, "Like we didn't know that already." she suddenly collapsed, "Hey! Chie!"

My eyes rolled back a little and I fell to my knees, Teddy ran over, "Sensei! Are you alright!"

I stood on my own, "Yeah...just a bit tired. That was emotionally draining and I've been working a lot lately. I'm even more tired than when I fought the last one. You good Chie?"

"Yeah."

Yosuke wasn't convinced, but was more concerned for Chie, for reasons he hadn't realized, "You don't look okay at all. And I bet you can use the same power we have now."

Chie looked a bit confused, "You mean that persona thing you told me about?...that figure...Tomoe....?"

Yosuke nodded and looked at me, "That was intense. How..."

I shrugged, "Hey, I have a black belt in mental kung-fu. She didn't stand a chance."

"Okay, but was hitting me required for that?"

I laughed, "That was just for fun...just kidding." I staggered forward.

Yosuke looked at the two of us with concern, "We can't go on like this, we should head back or a break."

Chie protested, I was too tired to, "I-I never said I needed a break! I...can still keep going..."

Teddie supported me, "Don't overdo it you guys!"

Yosuke suddenly looked very mature, "It's not that we don't think you can. It's just, we have to save Yukiko-san, no matter what. Now that you have the power, you can fight with us. It'd be much better for us all if you had your strength back. Plus look at Bryan. Do you think he can fight at 100% after saving you? That's why we're saying we should go back and regroup."

"But Yukiko's still in here, isn't she? I-I have to tell her I'm not as strong as she thinks! It's because she was with me... Because we were always together, I was able to act that way. If we weren't, I'd..."

Teddy tried to empathize, "Well, you need to get your strength back! Then you can tell her! Yuki-chan's normal. The shadows don't attack normal people. They only attack when the fog lifts here. I'm positive she'll be fine."  
Chie was still clueless, "Why...? I don't get it..."

Yosuke explained, "Remember? Teddie told us that the weather here is the opposite of our own world. When it fogs over in our world that's the day it lifts here, and that's when the Shadows attack their victims. So even if we leave for a while, Yukiko-san won't be in danger until the fog starts to cover Inaba. I'm sure of it. It's the same way for the announcer and Senpai... Don't you remember how it was foggy in town on the days they died?"

Chie frowned, "They were killed by their other selves...? I understand what you meant now."

Yosuke nodded, "The fog usually appears after it rains. But it's been sunny today. I don't think it's going to rain again anytime soon. Don't worry so much. We'll check the weather forecast first thing when we get back."  
Chie still wasn't convinced, "But I-I can't turn back now! We've come so far! Yukiko's still here! She's all alone! She must be so scared!"  
I understood, I knew it was true, but I couldn't go on either, "Then you tell me how much further we gotta go to reach Yukiko! You don't know what's up ahead. The enemies might be ridiculously strong. If we push ourselves too hard and get killed, who'll save Yukiko then? I refuse to fail her again! I couldn't protect her before. But we'll save her!"

That made Chie feel a little better, "Alright. I'm sorry about before... I shouldn't have rushed in like that by myself..."

I frowned, and gazed at my feet, which thanks to my exhaustion were closer than usual, "I know how you feel."  
As we made our way back, Chie was frank with us, "We'll have to stop here today, but I'll be back! You guys better not come here without me, got it?"

Yosuke put on a grin and raised a fist in determination, "Yeah, let's all promise each other: Nobody goes in alone. It's way too dangerous. If we don't work together, we won't be able to solve this case or save Yukiko-san. Right?"

At that moment, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, something sinister scurrying around the corner, I didn't feel anything strange and Teddy hadn't detected it, so I dismissed it as a trick of the light.

Yosuke repeated himself, "Right, Bryan?"

I looked at my feet again, "You're right."  
With the resolution to save Yukiko I suddenly felt a new but familiar power. A new bond? The day had been crazy, and it wasn't over yet. I still had to go home and look in the faces of Yukiko's parents.

Yosuke was about to ask me something but saw the depth of my fatigue and took on the role of leader for the moment, "Okay, let's get some rest for today so we're ready for tomorrow on. And don't forget to check the weather forecast. It gets foggy after a lot of rain, so keep an eye out. Also, let's make sure we gear up for next time."

"Yeah, next time." I thought heavily on what that would mean to me.

Next Chapter: Day of Despots, Night of Knights

This chapter was mostly straight out of the last fic with minor tweaks, but the next chapter will be very different. It will actually feature an out of party social link that I meant to include in the original but never did. What is that you ask? Well in the game the sports teams started recruiting the day after this, so you can guess what I'm doing. It won't feature either of the people from the Strength arcana in the game though (as I hate basketball and soccer :P ). Yep, new social link character! Also, what's wrong with Bryan's power? What new secrets about it lay in wait? As the Death arcana creeps closer, will the dreaded sticky shift key on my keyboard strike another cruel blow on my mind? Place you bets people! The person who guesses closest to which chapter I'll lose my mind during will get a preview of that surprise for the fans I mentioned a few chapters ago...and maybe a cookie.


	12. Chapter 11

_A/N: Well this is a wee bit embarrassing, I went and started a new game so I could freshen the whole thing in my mind again and noticed I got the timing wrong here. Turns out there's a whole day between Chie's awakening and the sports clubs bringing in new members. Lol, my bad. Anyway, the theme song for this chapter is "Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera"._

Chapter Eleven: Shadows and Sanctuary

_Shortly after Chie's Awakening, Yukiko's Perspective_

Someone was humming, it was a familiar tune, one I'd had stuck in my head since that time Bryan had jokingly said I was inspiring the songwriter in him. It was so lonely, not the tune he had hummed that day, but just as desperate. It was as if whoever came up with it wanted someone to take away everything, leave them with nothing but an embrace. Tears came to my eyes even before I was fully aware of what was happening. When the humming stopped I shot upright, my eyes snapping open in fear.

I'd been at the inn, greeting guests and helping them check in, wishing that it let up so I could take a moment and breathe. The place I had woke up in was different though, much different. A large opulent throne, gorgeous yet intimidating, was right in front of me with no occupant. The room was beautiful stonework right out of the many medieval fairy tales I had been read as a child. It was a throne room, but I didn't feel like a princess. I felt like a prisoner. There was no telling where I was, but I knew I wanted to get out. I could barely move though. Something weighed on me that I wasn't terribly familiar with at the time. It was fear. All I could do was stand there and stare at that throne and wonder.

I jumped a little and froze as strong hands found my sides and glided around to my stomach, finding a resting place at my waist as I was pulled into a firm embrace. If I had been wearing my school uniform instead of my a kimono, the tips of those wanting fingers would have barely entered the front of my skirt. I breathed in sharply and held that air, feeling oddly warm and chilled to the bone at the same time. Even though those arms were holding me from behind and I could not see their owner, I instinctively sank back into that wanting grasp. My mind screamed to run, and my heart whispered a name as he breathed in the smell of my hair. He exhaled, the sound itself filled with a passion beyond imagining.

A whisper in an unfamiliar voice came into my ears, "Joushi-san."

I quickly became dead weight and twisted around, the sudden motion freeing me from those hands. I stumbled backwards as I tried to backpedal away from the man too quickly, but he grabbed my hand gently to steady me. The reflexes he had were amazing, as if he had known I was going to lose m balance before hand. The stranger stood there before me, his head covered in a dull gray helmet and his lightly armored torso surrounded by a deep crimson trenchcoat.

"Who are you?" I gasped, scared but struggling to limited success, to keep my reason intact.

I heard a tiny chuckle, and imagined the smile that was hiding being that mask, "Why, my dear Joushi, I am the very prince you have longed for. Don't you remember? I took you away from that place. I rescued you."

"Well take me back!" I protested, "I want to go home!"

He stepped towards me, embracing me gently, "No you don't."

Those eyes, I could see them through the slits of the helmet, they were the same but different. Instead of the familiar kindness, understanding, and loneliness that they should have contained; there was only want, danger, and lust. The hidden pain I had glanced before was instead bliss, though it was as unknown to me as that pain had been.

"Who are you?" my mind reeled, unsure of why I had let him hold me in his arms again.

"I am what you see before you dream, I am what you long for, I am passion, I am justice, I am your future, Joushi-san."

"That name...why call me that? Please just give me a straight answer." nothing made any sense, why the heck was I falling for those words?...those poetic words some part of me always wanted to hear.

He didn't answer that, he only bowed to me, like a knight in service to a princess, "Forgive me, dear joushi-san, but the castle as recently been attacked and I must make preparations for their next assault."

"Attacked?"

"Yes, a dark knight seeks to rob this place of all its treasures to slake his own greed, and it is the duty of a just knight to thwart such fiends. I must depart now. Stay here were it is safe."

I slumped, sitting on one of the stairs leading up to the throne, "But I want to go home!"

The knight stood, his voice sounded like he was smiling again, "I will grant what your heart desires when I return. I must make this place safe first though. Wait for me joushi-san."

He turned and walked away, and I found myself to weak from the stress to chase him or try and make a run for the doors before they closed behind him. Was I prisoner or a princess?

_The Next Morning, Bryan's Perspective_

I hadn't sleep too well the previous night and explained my fatigue to the Amagi family by telling the truth, I had been searching high and low for Yukiko. Well, I'd been searching high at least...actually only the second floor. Regardless, I left out the fact I was doing so by entering a parallel world and combing a fairy tale castle in a desperate attempt at freeing their daughter from a nightmare room composed solely of he deepest, darkest, and most negative feelings. Even if they believed me rather than locking me up, that might have been a bit much for them.

I found Chie waiting at the bus stop like usual, surprisingly with Yosuke, who looked as if he wanted to talk something over. They'd been chatting, but apparently about nothing that important as they stopped immediately and waited for me to get off the bus, and I wasn't getting that vibe that they were trying to exclude me from anything.

"Hey, Chie, sleep well?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yep, I was out until time to go to school. By the way...thanks for yesterday. You don't know what a relief it was to get that all of my chest and you guys not holding it against me. Geez, how embarrassing though, you guys saw everything I was keeping hidden inside."

Yosuke smiled, "Like I said, don't sweat it."

Chie was curious about something, "Yosuke went through the same thing, but he won't talk about it. Was it that bad?"

The man in question quickly found a way out, that happened to be me, "Hey, come to think of it you had your power before you even told me about that place. How'd you manage to beat your shadow by yourself? I could barely move."

The distraction worked, Chie found herself wondering too, "Yeah, I know you have some kinda extra power, but still..."

I started for the school and my two friends fell into step beside me, "Well, to be honest I didn't face any shadow, the first time I used my persona was when I fought Yosuke's shadow."

"Hmmm, maybe it's thanks to your power, or could it be because you've got nothing to hide?" Yosuke mused.  
"I gotta agree that you seem like a pretty enlightened guy." Chie noted, "There's a funny air about you...a strange, knowing look in your eyes. I dunno, I guess that what draws people to you, or something like that."

"I'll take that as a compliment, but really I'm not all that enlightened." I was honestly tempted to say 'Drawn to me? What are you giving up on getting Yosuke?' but she would have probably hit me...hard.

Yosuke changed the subject, "Anyway, I just came to see if you guys were up for another try at that place this evening. The last trip didn't exactly last all that long."

Chie frowned, "Sorry about that, if..."

I pated her on the shoulder, "It's fine, it was our idea to rest, and no one can hold it against a person for needing to rest after that kinda thing."

"But still..."

"Just make up for it this evening."

Yosuke looked at me with concern, "But dude, you look like crap."

"Don't I always?"

"Not this crappy. Did you even get any sleep last night?"

I looked away, "To be honest, no I didn't. I was too disturbed by the fact I can't figure out how to summon Izanagi again. You did it as easily as moving your fingers, but I can't even get the card to come out."

Yosuke thought about it a moment, "Weird, but let's think this through. The first time you summoned it, you were facing down my shadow and telling me impossible to know things about Senpai's feelings. Then you said something I'll never forget because it was cheesy, dramatic, and you even said Senpai's name in the wrong order. You yelled 'Saki Konishi! Witness my redemption! Awaken! Izanagi!'"

"So I have to be regretful and paraphrase a scene from Kamen Rider to summon him?"  
Chie laughed, "I thought that sounded familiar, I used to watch old episodes of that when I was a kid."

I shook my head, "Great, I have the awesome power of an emo weeaboo."

Yosuke and Chie had a good laugh at that, but when they were finished Yosuke continued, "No man, I mean you might just need to be in the right moment or under the right circumstances. Like it only works when protecting people from their shadows or something?"

"Why would I be so restricted?"

Yosuke shrugged, "To be honest man you were doing great without it. It'll come with time I'm sure, but we don't really have to worry."

"Right. Thanks I guess."

"Okay, whenever you think you're ready for another try, just call." with that, Yosuke hopped on his bike and pedaled off towards the school.

That last statement reminded Chie, "Oh, you don't have my cell number do you?"

"No, I probably should though." I pulled out my phone.

"Here you go." she used a handy cell feature introduced about a year before, a function that let you quickly pick a phone in the area and request an exchange of numbers, if agreed to the numbers would be put right into the phone's memory automatically. It was a hell of a lot quicker and securer than saying them aloud.

With numbers given she looked at me frankly, "Seriously though, thanks for saving me yesterday. Yosuke's cool and all, but there really is something different about you. I feel like you won't let me down."

"Not on purpose."

She smiled, "So we have to save her before the fog right? Let's make sure we bring her back alright?"

"Right."

As the day moved on, I got more and more distracted, thinking about Yukiko's situation. I wanted to make sure I didn't fail again. My thoughts wandered off topic to the incident with Chie. Yukiko had called to her, that voice of her thoughts of her, meant she was thinking of Chie. Why did it bother me so much that the voice didn't mention me at all? We had only met less than a week ago after all. Regardless of anything I did in those days, naturally she'd think of her longtime friend more. Plus, why should I care? Sure she was cute, smart, sweet, caring, and tried to be tough when she clearly needed help... "Arggh!" I grunted in frustration and jabbed at a wall.

I remembered something then. Her shadow had mentioned a prince. Was she talking about me? Was I grasping at straws hoping she had really thought of me? I did fit the bill. Though I wasn't handsome I had come from a far off land and defended her and her loved ones from things before. I sighed, unsure of what to do or feel.

School ended, and I headed over to the metalworks. After all, busywork would take my mind off things and we had gathered some parts that Chie said the blacksmith might like. I pawned them of and used the money to buy a sword. After all, I couldn't just rely on a bat. I needed something with some more power behind it. I stashed it in a gym bag and sat patiently in the food court at the table we used the day before and where we agreed to meet that day. After a while, I got fidgety and called up Yosuke.

"Hey, man. I need to go ahead in to focus my powers," I lied, "I'll wait for you at the entrance."

"Okay man, but don't go any further without us." he seemed concerned, and I could he wasn't sure letting me do it was a good idea.

He was right. I had fully intended to just visit the Velvet Room through the door I had seen inside the main area, but something took hold of me, I assumed a desire for answers to the confusion in my mind. In retrospect, I was a moron. Even though I had a persona, it wasn't mine. Just because I had never faced my shadow, it didn't necessarily mean I didn't have one. I knew I was in a similar state to the one Chie had been in; but I still kept going in, ignoring Teddie's greeting and telling him to wait for the others, then marched straight to the castle alone.

I should have known something was up when there were parts of shadows strewn everywhere, but I took advantage of the lack of shadows to get quickly to the area that we faced down Chie's shadow in. I stormed in, and standing there was Yukiko's shadow, gown and all, her back to me.

"Turn around." I demanded, "Tell me where the real Yukiko is!"

It turned and giggled, microphone in hand, "Oh my! A special guest, I wonder how he'll play into all this? Things are really heating up!"

"Stop this right now! I want you to take me to her! I won't let you fill her head with your twisted truths anymore!"

She scowled at me, "I'm going back to hunt for my Prince Charming!" as quick as she scowled she grinned, "Oh where could he be? This place is so huge! It's so exciting but it makes it so hard to find him!"

"Oh I'm right here." 'I' said, stepping from behind the Shadow Yukiko, he had no glowing veins, which was surprising, "My sweet beloved princess, I'm here to whisk you away to the grand ball. Will you dance with my love?"

"Don't you touch her you imposter!" I felt funny, dropping to one knee, felt a throbbing sensation in my eyes, is that what it felt like to face yourself?

The Shadow Yukiko ignored both of us, "Oh! Maybe he's playing hide and seek in the fog!" A sign appeared with the name of her 'show' joined by fanfare and a cheer from an unseen audience, "Ready or not! Here I come! Let's go further in, shall we? Well, I'm off again!" laughing again she gazed at me condescendingly, as if I were unworthy. Maybe it was my imagination, because she looked away casually and called to no one, "You better be waiting with bells on, my dear prince." She ran off though another pair of doors and disappeared up a flight of stairs.

The shadow me was crest fallen, "She doesn't care about me at all?" Suddenly it looked to the corner of the room behind me as if it had seen something and ran up the stairs, chasing her regardless.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

I woke up on the throne in that strange room, even though I didn't remember sitting there or even falling asleep. I was covered by a familiar crimson trenchcoat owned by the strange masked man that claimed he rescued me. I assumed correctly he was also the owner of those pacing footsteps. I quietly observed him, not letting him know I was awake at first. He seemed agitated, stomping back and forth as he muttered something. I noted he had a large hatchet on his belt, the handle barely large enough for two hands and a blade at least as large as my forearm.

He noticed we staring at him, "Oh, Joushi-san! You are awake!"

"Is something the matter?"

He brushed it off, "No, no, heavens forbid. I was just mulling over the fact there hasn't been another attack."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"The invader might not be able to make a move, but there will eventually be another strike. Maybe not today, but by the morrow they will try to steal everything away and take you from me."

"Why don't you just take me home? If you truly want to protect me..."

"If you and I were there, then your parents would be in danger. You don't want that."

I looked down, not sure if I should feel sacred or not, "No, but this place...it's strange. I keep hearing whispers..."

He rushed over and grabbed my shoulders, "Meddlings of the dark forces. That's all they are. Believe in me, I will drive off the attackers and fulfill all your dreams. I vow to meet you every desire if you so wish it. Just say the words I want to hear, that I know you want to say."

I handed him back his coat, "Thank you for this, but I don't know...I don't even know what you look like or what your name is."

"For now, just call me Yamizanagi." he put on his coat slowly and looked away, "But I cannot show you my face."

"Why not?"

"It would frighten you, I bear a curse. Given to me by our attackers, in inflicted a grim change in my appearance." He sighed, "I don't think I could handle seeing your beautiful face twisted in horror, so please, allowed me to retain my mask until I have driven them back."

"Curses? Axes? Invaders? I'm dreaming...this is some strange fairy tale."

"Yes my joushi, you have dreamed of this, but I have come at last to make it a reality. I want you as my companion eternally, a union of intimacy beyond imagination."

I shied away from him my face flushing red, "I-I'd rather not...I-I don't even know you."

"I can wait, I care that much for you." he stepped away, striding for the door, "Pardon me, it seems that attack I was expecting has started."

_Yosuke's Perspective_

Chie and I arrived on the castle grounds with Teddie, rushing in to find a tall figure with well-trimmed black-hair. I was understandably confused, but readied my weapon and got ready to call my persona, and seeing this, Chie got ready as well.

I called out to the man, "Who are you? Why are you here? Are you the one throwing people in here?"

The man turned, he was a clean-shaved American with a twisted smile and eyes that seemed to glow...wait, his veins and eyes...were glowing neon red! Even his well-pressed suit couldn't hide it, "You wouldn't understand! People think they know me, but I'd never let them see who I really am. After all, they wouldn't understand, they'd reject me! They can't understand!"

Confused, Chie stepped forward, "What are you tal...?"

I grabbed her and pulled her back, "Stay back, whoever he is, he seems to have powers like Bryan's."

"Like Bryan? You don't understand anything kid. But I do! I understand everything!" it suddenly turned into me, but the veins remained, "Man, Bryan's so strange, what's with that glowing thing? He's not like us." then to Chie, "Whoa, he could see right into my head! He's so scary! It's like he knows things about me that I don't even know!"

I backed away, disturbed on more levels than I had ever been, "You're not human at all! What the hell are you?"

It turned to it's first form, "See what I mean? You don't understand! People who have never seen the darkness cannot appreciate the light!" wide-eyed it laughed hysterically, "I'll help you understand! It's not too late to save you!" he moved his hand as if picking up something and a shadowy figure appeared behind him, "OBEY ME! YAMIZANAGI!"

"Shadow Izanagi? What the hell?" I called my persona card to my hand as Chie did the same.

Ready to battle whoever this guy was to the death, I was dumbfounded when he simply fell to one knee, "Dammit. I can hear...shut up you idiot! I can..." he vanished.

Yosuke was dumbfounded, "What the hell? This world keeps getting crazier."

Teddy growled, "That was a shadow! A powerful one, I could feel it linked to this place. This will be a lot more dangerous than I thought!"

"Wait, "Chie pondered, "Do you think that was Bryan's shadow?"

"I don't think so...it's strange it would have marks like sensei, but when your shadow came out, it wasn't linked to this place. This one was. Strangely, it seemed to be to call other shadows at will, it didn't even need to be rejected to attract that one."

I shook my head in a useless attempt to clear it, "This is all too confusing. Are you saying Yukiko made that guy like she did the rest of this place? Why the marks? And why did he call that other shadow 'Shadow Izanagi'"

"I don't know." Teddie shrugged, "But if that guy's the prince she's looking for, we need to hurry and find sensei. Yukiko might be safe, but it won't hesitate to attack him!"

"No worries." I turned to see Bryan waiting on the stairs not far off, "If you're talking about strange shadows I've run into it already. There was something weird about it. It didn't attack me, it just followed Yukiko's shadow higher in the castle."

As you can imagine, I was pissed, "Man, why'd you go ahead of us? You said you'd wait for us at the entrance!"

"I did. The entrance to the next floor. You know...where we left off?"

I sighed, "If I knew that's what you meant..."

"Let's just get going, we have to save Yukiko from her 'prince'." Chie urged.

Bryan smiled apologetically, "I'll be more considerate next time. We'd beaten all the shadows on this floor so I didn't think there was a problem. I'm sorry."

I was still a little upset, but I'd get over it, "Alright man. But no more going in without us alright?"

Bryan nodded. I got the feeling it was going to be one hell of an afternoon.

Next Chapter: Night of Knights, Day of Despots

_A character familiar to the fans of the original version of the fic has returned to the story, the "shadow man" now with 25% more character development and 13% more villainousness (wait...is that a word? Well, spell check says it is, so...). What does he want with Yukiko? What does he mean by saving Yosuke and Chie? Who or what the heck is he anyway? Why does he have powers sorta like Bryan's but shadow-like? What is the true nature of Shadow Izanagi? Will Bryan get his persona use back? What team will he join at school? Who is that girl that always stands at the bulletin board in class and is always trying to be helpful? Stay tuned and find out!_


	13. Chapter 12

_A/N: Theme song for this chapter is "Inside the Fire" by Disturbed. Though it's actually a song about a guy going insane after his girlfriend committed suicide, the fact that it's sung from the perspective of the devil trying to tempt him to give into his darkness and surrender his soul, it fits pretty well to the activities of the shadow man. Also, the last two chapters were a bit rushed I admit, but the pacing of this chapter should be a bit better. A bit of crowded feeling in the story is bound to happen early on as dynamics are still being established. After the Yukiko Arc, things should be smoother for a while. Also, this is a longer chapter than normal, as it includes the conclusion of the dungeon delve started last chapter (including the mid-point boss battle), more interaction with the shadow man, and the introduction of two new side characters._

Chapter Twelve: Nights of Knights, Day of Despots

In a place neither dream nor reality, between mind and matter, a card in one person's fortune flipped over. Battles upon which everything hanged on were now Bryan's present, and so far he and his allies had proven strong enough to succeed in them. The next card was the Priestess, a future that demanded a change in thinking. If Bryan could not adapt to the change, his fate would remain broken. Igor smiled, seeing what awaited his guest and looking to the piano that lacked a pianist.

He spoke to no one in particular, but his words brought a smile to the normally neutral Margaret's face, "Changes are in store, not just for him, but for ones close to his destiny as well. Even we shall feel the ramifications."

An interesting guest indeed.

_Yosuke's Perspective_

Looking at Bryan, I could only see how truly different he actually was from us. During the day he was just a regular dude, but with an odd sense of humor, but in the TV world the change was as visible as the glow in his veins. Maybe that weird shadow guy was right. I couldn't understand him at all. So casual and nice in his day to day live, but in there he seemed more distant, and his kindness seemed to leave completely. In my years of living in the city, I had seen a lot of fights. Sometimes members of martial arts clubs would get into gangs and fight on the streets, but Bryan was different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but how he fought was compact, brutal, and almost scientific.

Take the first shadows we came against when were advanced a floor for example, even though he was wielding a katana, he didn't swing it or even hold it in the usual way. We'd been heading to a corner and he motioned for us to keep close to he wall, and took the lead, peeking around the corner to see if anything was ahead. I could see a look in his eye as he studied the sights before him, a look like he was planning the entire battle before the fact.

"There's more spherical ones, should be easy. They try to yank large weapons away with their tongue, but mines the only big one and it's a blade, they'll go after your attacking limbs instead so keep that in mind. Yosuke, you lead with our left so they'll be grabbing that, the moment they do you need to hit the tongue with a quick stab down and without hesitation stab forward at the face and have Jiraiya blast upward with wind." He demonstrated the arm motion in a compact form that still got the idea across.

"Got it"

"Chie, you said you prefer kicking so they'll eventually go after your leading leg, step on their tongue with your free leg, sending in Tomoe at the same time for a heavy strike."

She nodded, "You sure know a lot about this kinda thing."

"I read a lot."

I laughed quietly, "Remind me to burrow that book then."

We went into battle, Bryan holding his katana with one hand and his other palm against the dull back of the blade near the tip. One of the spheres tried to snare it immediately, only to have Bryan twist the edge towards himself and sever the tongue with a pull, and immediately lunge in for a killing thrust. After that he wielded it the same way, punching with the hand on the handle and using the other hand to push the blade across and then thrust in. The things tried their usual tactics on on of us, just as he said, and with the counters Bryan told us it only got them killed. The battle went like clockwork.

During that fight, another thing that separated Bryan from us was that every shadow I killed brought a lurch to my stomach, after all they were monsters, but it was still killing. Bryan didn't seem bothered at all, at least he wasn't showing it. I recalled he looked mortified when he beat my shadow, but that day he seemed so single-minded. It was a little scary. Where that kind of mental discipline had come from was a mystery, but I could guess what had brought it on. He and Yukiko lived together, probably gotten really close. Not only that, I knew for a fact he and Chie got along well. Having failed to save two victims before, I could understand the zeal, especially when it was someone so close to home.

Bryan continued to vary his tactics, fighting every shadow a different way and when he'd gotten the patterns down he gave us tips to counter them. It was still hard, as the shadows seemed to get stronger and stronger the further we went. Giant gloves, living tables, large crows with lanterns, it was crazy. It was only the occasional strange item we found in chests that were laying around that kept us from tiring out before clearing the third floor. When I discovered Jiraiya could heal it was entirely by accident, but I was finally getting the hang of using my partner. It was a simple matter of willing it and putting some umph behind that desire.

With Teddie helping us identify the strange curative items we were finding and the tactical skills of our leader, saving Yukiko wasn't going to be hard at all.

_Bryan's Perspective_

This was going to be hard. Even though Yosuke seemed confident and Chie was her usual determined self, I could see fatigue taking hold as we reached the fourth floor. My thoughts on the matter were put on hold when we all heard a voice, Yukiko's voice.

"When will my prince get here? I want him to take me away. Far away. Hehehe! I'll wait for you forever my sweet prince! Forever and ever!"

I gritted my teeth and advanced, not realizing the effect the place was having on me. I was fine for a while, but as we were moving further in the voices were getting to me. Her voice was calling out tauntingly, asking for rescue. It was a rescue she wouldn't even need if I had tried harder to understand her. Three times I had failed. I wasn't going to fail again, I wasn't going to let Yukiko die!

We got ready to charge into another fight with a group of shadows only to find ourselves transported to some other area, looking similar like all the halls did but the path was different. That voice taunted, proclaiming how is was so exciting and that she was waiting.

Teddie looked around and sniffed a bit, "We're still on the same floor so I think I know how to get back to where we were, follow me!"

We followed, only to find our selves transported again, to a completely different area of the same floor. Yosuke looked nauseous, "Whoa, stop the ride I'm getting dizzy."

Chie stomped her foot, "Great, we can't even know what path we'll end up on or where we're going!"

"Calm down." I said, my own annoyance mounting, "Teddie, keep track of where we go, we've gotta figure out the pattern or something."

I lead the way along the paths at random, trying my best to avoid wandering shadows as we worked on figuring it out. Soon we were back to square one, "Sensei! This is where we started! Look a door maybe..."

I motioned for the group to follow and careful tried to open the door, "No good. Locked. Let's go get through that first transport again, then go the opposite way."

"Sounds like a good a plan as any." Yosuke agreed.

After some trial and error, my idea worked and we found ourselves at another set of doors, large than the other set by a little. I could sense something on the other side, it was familiar, kinda like the sensation I felt around Yukiko, but there was something else there as well, something that felt an awful lot like a wide range of negative emotions. It was a really strong shadow, or so it seemed.

Teddie confirmed my instincts, "I smell something beyond the door, it that girl! But there's something else too."

"We should get our breaths back, no need to push it." Yosuke leaned against a wall.

I tossed him a few vials of some liquid that Teddie had called Chewing Souls, that were good for mental fatigue. He drank them up quickly as he noticed I was turning to kick open the door.

On the other side was Yukiko's shadow, and..."Izanagi?"

The figure that looked like Izanagi spoke up, "Hardly. For now you may call me Yamizanagi."

Yosuke and Chie seemed to recognize the guy as Yosuke stepped up and yelled, "You! Who are you? How can you turn into Izanagi like that?"

I shook my head, "He's right, Yosuke, that's not Izanagi, all the colors are inverted, and the weapon's different. He's wielding an axe, the enemy of the spear. He's like an anti-Izanagi."

Something dawned on Chie, "So Shadow Izanagi is a fitting name."

I nodded and went into a loose kendo stance, "Right, good thing swords outclass axes or we'd be in trouble. You guys keep mobile, I'll keep that axe occupied."

Shadow Yukiko laughed, "Oh so thrilling! Can our special guests get past the knight at the gates? Which noble warrior shall win the hear of the princess?"

Yamizanagi strode over to the shadow and placed his armored hands on its bare shoulders, the coldness of them causing the shadow to flinch, but in a pleasured way. He looked straight at me as he nuzzled her neck and rubbed his armored cheek against hers, breathing in the scent or her hair, the shadow went a little limp with ecstasy, "I've already won my joushi-san."

"Get your hands off her!" I growled.

He chuckled, "Why so angry? Is it because you want to do this to her? She's something every man wants to 'throw down on a futon and ravage'. Even simple Yosuke over there that's trying to flank me has naughty dreams about her I'm sure."

Yosuke got defensive, "Hey, don't go calling people perverts you asshole. Tell us where he real Yukiko is?"

The crimson figure held up a key as he wrapped his free arm around the dark Yukiko's waist, getting far too close to personal bits for my comfort he turned to her, "Flee now my joushi, I shall see you again soon." He let her go and she ran by, I would have stopped her, but I figured that key was more important. That was something he confirmed, "This is the key to getting closer to her, closer to the truth of the matter. We both want the same thing."

"Somehow I don't think so." I sneered at him.

"It true!" he laughed, "You want her to face her true self and become who she wants to be. So do I! The difference is, you want her to change to suit the world around her. I care about the true her lying inside crying to break free."

I understood, "You lunatic, you want her to give in to her dark side and become her shadow!"

"Ding-ding-ding! CORRECT! Johnny!" He threw the key to the ground, "TELL HIM WHAT HE'S WON!" with a smooth upward gesture he cut his hand on his axe and glowing red blood dripped from the wound onto the key, turning black and forming into a large knight-like shadow on horseback, no, it was part of the horse, their armor-like bodies joined where knight hip met horseback.

The man chuckled, "Get it! It's like a game show!"

I was angry. No it was purer than that, beyond that. I was resolute. I wouldn't fail again, I would fall here. No maniac with shadow powers was going to take a friend of mine away. I felt familiar hands on my shoulders and could sense the smile on his masked face as we shared a thirst for redemption. Here I would take a stand. I looked at Chie and felt again the same determination to free Yukiko from this threat.

I smiled, showing the man I was holding Izanagi's card at last, "Oh I'll show you a lightning round!" to the heavens I raised the card, offering up sweet resolution as a testament to power, "AWAKEN! IZANAGI!" I drove my sword into a crack in the floor as I smashed the card into my face and it formed that familiar helmet around my head and the rest formed into armor on my body, the dark blue coat appearing from nothing to complete the look. I reached out and grabbed Izanagi's spear as it appeared before me.

Yamizanagi clapped, "Such dramatic wordplay my dear otaku! I cringe before the power of Bald Emo Man! Your brooding powers are just too much for me!" He pointed to the lance wielding knight, "So I'll just be on my way, gotta get a good seat if I wanna enjoy watching this guy butcher your so-called friends in front of you after all!" With a maniacal laugh he was gone.

Teddie hid in a far corner, "Careful, that ones stronger than the others we've fought!"

Chie glanced at me in awe for only a moment, and Yosuke smiled at me, "Come on, Leader! Let's give this guy a show!"

_Yukiko's Perspective_

When the doors opened I whipped around to see Yamizanagi rolling in a table of food, "I am sure by now you hunger my dear. Please allow me the honor of joining you in a meal."

"What about that attack? How did it go?"

He chuckled softly and bowed a little, "Our defense goes well, my lady, I engaged the enemy forces and as we speak my best soldier is dispatching them."

I forced myself to my feet, tired for some reason, despite sleeping a lot. Maybe I was hungry, "I guess I'll be able to go home soon then?"

"Within the next few days your desire will be fulfilled. Patience my sweet joushi-san." He motioned at the table, and pulled out a chair that had been stored under it, "In the meantime, please sit and enjoy."

I noticed something, "Your hand...you're wounded!"

He glanced at his bandaged hand and laughed, "This is nothing. I'd suffer graver wounds than this to protect you."

Frowning, I sat down and looked at the knight, "You don't even know me."

"I know you better than you think. I can understand the pain you go through every day." he served up various foods on my plate, they were lavish and expensive foreign foods.

"This is too much...I gain weight so easily."

"Oh perish the thought my dear, you don't have to worry about that. You look fine. Such a build as yours is healthy."

"That sounds familiar."

He came around behind me and hugged my waist, "Whoever said it was a wise man." he smelled my hair again as if my scent were some kind of drug, "But he can't have you. He won't fulfill your wishes, I can take you wherever, whenever, as far away as you want me too. Just say the words I want to hear."

"What words?"

"That we will be one, that every fiber of your being is mine, that you'll give in to every want in your heart."

I blushed and pushed him away, "I don't even know you. I've never even seen your face."

He seemed to frown, "Is that so important? You know what you want, and I can give it to you. Is what lay beneath this mask so crucial?"

I looked at the table uncomfortably. "I don't really care what that curse did to you. If you really care that much about me, nothing could make me hate you."

He took a step back, unsure of how to react. Of all the reactions I expected however, anger wasn't on of them, "How can you say that? You haven't even seen what they made me into!"

"Then let me see. Help me understand." I stood up and faced him.

He looked to the ground, then up at me again, "Fine, if it matters so much." He brought his hand of to his face and muttered something, pulling the helmet off like a mask and making a motion as if he were throwing something unseen down unto the floor, the armor and coat vanished and a shadowy figure resembling his former form appeared behind him and dispersed like smoke in the wind. Before me stood his true form, a tall American man, clean shaven, with short curly black hair and familiar silvery e yes. He had the build of a warrior, his jaw square and noble, but he wasn't handsome. He wasn't ugly either, more average.

I couldn't see a single out of place thing, nothing that could be called a curse, "There's nothing wrong with your face. What curse?"

His face was shocked for an instant, then twisted into anger, "Don't lie to me! LOOK AT ME!" he kicked over the table in anger, I yelped in fear at the sudden outburst, "LOOK AT ME!"

I was near tears, "I really can't see anything wrong! Why are you so angry?"

He grabbed me roughly, "Don't you dare...!" Suddenly coming to his senses he hugged me and apologized, "I'm so sorry!" he seemed ready to cry, "It's just I have been strained lately, with the attacks and all."

I was still scared, "I-I really don't see anything wrong with you. Why don't you believe me?"

He let go then made his way towards the door, "I have to go my precious joushi-san. Forgive me, but I must check the defenses. I'll send a servant up with another table."

"You don't believe me..."

He looked over his shoulder with a pained expression, "I do if that's want you want. I'm here at your every desire my love." with that he was gone.

I fell to my knees crying, confused, and alone. Yamizanagi was clearly in pain. He needed me. No one had ever needed me before.

_Bryan's Perspective_

I parried the lance of the charging knight as the weight of his horse pinned me to the wall. It was on its last legs, acting in desperation. I was just as bad off though, bleeding blue blood out of several stab wounds I had suffered. If not for the increases in power the social links I had formed brought to me, and the shield of Izanagi's form I would surely have fallen already.

The giant warrior pulled back for a killing stroke and I shouted some quick commands, "Ice to back, wind from left!"

Ice from Tomoe struck home in the spine of the knight, slowing the joints of his armor and leaving him stunned for the blast of wind from the strafing Jiraiya. Yosuke was taking a chance, sending his persona to flank as he moved to the other side. Without his partner to shield him, one well placed stab could kill the teen. It was a tactic I had advised, and it relied on everyone doing there parts.

Sure enough Chie was moving into position, doing the same thing Yosuke was doing but to the opposite side, Tomoe would be Yosuke's guardian, and Jiraiya would be Chie's. The blast of wind sent the horse of balance and broke the pin, so I did my bit, quick-stepping left and parrying another stab, driving the weapon down and keeping it down with my foot. I raised a hand and channel ed Izanagi's power against the armored form, corroding the armor for a short amount of time, a new skill I had discovered earlier in the fight. Immediately, I drove my spear into the ground forming a ramp.

"Kick and wind! Now!"

Chie charged and sprang off the spear ramp, kicking the side of the knight as Jiraiya blasted with wind, the combined force causing the knight to teeter far to one side, the side Yosuke and Tomoe were on.

"Hook and pin! Now!"

Yosuke hopped up and hooked his knives into the thing, using his weight to force the thing even further over. Tomoe leaped on came down from above and into the side of the shadow, driving it the rest of the way to the floor and pinning it there.

Yosuke rolled clear, "Let's do this!"

We all fell upon the thing en masse, with me jumping onto the large neck of the horse and pounding it repeatedly with my fist. If I could paralyze the horse part, it wouldn't be able to move. It proved a mute point though as the sheer damage it had taken proved to much and the shadow collapsed. I noticed a piece of the shadow enter my left hand, as had happened with many shadows before.

I looked at the hanged man symbol there as Izanagi left me again, taking his form with him, "Who is that guy? He seems to have powers like mine, but the opposite. I absorb pain and refine it into personas, but he seems to use it for shadows."

Yosuke shrugged, breathing heavily, "I don't know, but whoever he is, it's safe to assume he's dangerous. Teddies said he's linked to this place, and he has a head start. We have to hurry if we're gonna get to Yukiko before him."

Chie, breathing just as heavily, nodded.

I didn't agree, "It's too late."

"What do you mean?" Yosuke said, shocked.

Chie was mad, "You're not giving up are you?"

"Of course not. All I mean is he'd already reached her before we met him. He made this shadow, but it's made from part of Yukiko. He's got access to her already. Maybe even from day one."

"All the more reason to hurry!" Yosuke grabbed the key the shadow had dropped and started to leave the room, "Come on!"

"No." I stated, stopping him, "We can't go on in this condition."

Teddie nodded, "Right. Besides, that guy was a shadow, and shadows don't attack normal people until the fog clears remember?"

"Even if he's different than other shadows, he's not out to kill her. He's out to make her surrender to her darkness. In this shape we have to rely on Yukiko being able to resist that."

Chie looked at her feet with a deep frown, "I can't believe I'm saying this...but he's right. We can't save her this tired. I know Yukiko. She's too nice to give in to any bad in her. If there even is any."

I looked at Yosuke, "You know what I can do, how well I understand people, trust me when I say she'll be okay. I can understand that now. We can do this, _she_ can do this."

Yosuke nodded. He trusted me, or maybe in his heart he knew he couldn't go on either.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

My stomach was growling, as I hadn't eaten since I got there, so when I heard the doors open again I was looking forward to getting some food. Then I lost my appetite, "What the...?"

The girl coming in wasn't bringing any food, in fact she was dressed more like a princess than a servant, in a beautiful gown straight out of a fairy tale. More attention grabbing though was that fact she looked exactly like me. Without a word but a disturbing grin on her face, she walked across the room and sat on the throne, as if waiting for something.

"Who...?"

I heard Yamizanagi's voice from the door and turned to see his once again armored form at the door, "That my dear is a gift for you, a glorious look at the princess that you could be."

I shook my head, "N-no! You said you were going to take me home!"

"I said I would grant your heart's desire. That is what you want."

"No it not!"

"You want to be swept away like a princess trapped in a castle. I can grant you a way out, make you more than that."

"I want to go home!"

"Do you really?" I could almost feel him grinning, "Think about it my love. Ponder what I'm offering you. I can give you everything, all I want is you to commit your everything to me. I want you to be who you really are inside. Don't you want to be who you're supposed to be?"

I fell to my knees, unsure of what to think.

He placed a hand on my shoulder and sat down a plate of food in front of me, "I'll be back for your reply at every meal. I can wait as long as it takes."

"Take me home..."

"Convince me that's what you want and I will."

How was I supposed to do that? Looking at that copy of me in that dress, I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

_Bryan's Perspective_

I spent the rest of that day after getting back being interrogated by the police. Apparently I was an even better suspect since the second victim went to my school and I had, according to the newscaster that had interviewed Yukiko, an obsession with the now missing girl. Only Miku-san came to my defense. Again, it was good that the guy in charge was that Detective Dojima, as he was a cool-headed and logical sort. In the end he decided me being the culprit didn't make much sense, a theory backed up by the fact my phone backed up my claim that I had been in the bathroom on the phone when she went missing, and Yosuke backed me up that it was a legit call.

After their suspecting glances passed, I still didn't talk to the Amagi's after that. They didn't trust me and I had no reason to talk with them. I'd have to play things carefully, even when I found Yukiko. If I just brought her back it would implicate me.

When I heard the next morning that the sports clubs were accepting new members it made me relieved. Since we'd decided to risk an off-day, something to take my mind of everything, but still keep my skills sharp would be nice. On the way to school, Chie recommended I join the karate club that she was a member of, but I told her I'd have to think about it.

I ignored the teachers like usual, occupying myself with reading the study material I'd been given rather than bothering to have them teach it to me. When the bell rang I went up to the front of the class to grab one of the event calendars that were kept there. They supposedly had a list of the clubs taking new members that day, but when I got up there there was a girl standing in the way. She was looking at the copy on the calendar that was pinned to the board, seemingly trying to memorize it. She was fairly normal looking, with a haircut like many of the other female students there. There was something different there though that I couldn't put m finger on.

"Excuse me, could you hand me one of those event schedules?" I asked apologetically.

She jumped a little, apparently so absorbed in the activity that she hadn't noticed me, "Oh, here you go. Sorry." She blushed a little, "You're the exchange student from America right?"

"So you figured that out already?" I joked.

She laughed uncomfortably, "Oh...yeah I guess it's pretty obvious you are. Hahaha. You must be pretty smart. I've always wanted to study abroad, but I've never managed to get my grades high enough. You don't even seem to need to try at it."

"Oh I'm just good at tests. But looking at this schedule brings up a weakness."

"What's that?"

I chuckled a little, "I can't read anything but romaji, I should really work on that."

"Oh, but you speak our language so well."

"The text book taught the language in romaji."

It made sense to her with that, "Oh well. Today the sports clubs are letting first years in, but they'd probably take transfers as well. You should as about them at the faculty office."

I nodded appreciatively, "Thanks I'll look into it. You've been a big help"

She blushed again, "I-If you need anything else I'm usually right up here, my name's Sachiko Sayuri"

"I'm Bryan Neir, nice to meet you."

Chie was waiting at the back of the class so I said goodbye to Sayuri-san and went to meet her. She took me by the faculty office to ask about clubs. King Moron for some reason accused me of something, he was talking too fast for me to understand him, though I got the impression he was accusing me of begin a pervert or something. What that had to do with anything was a mystery though. I found out I was too late for basketball or soccer, which was fine by me, but luckily that karate club had recently lost a member and was looking for a replacement.

When I got there though the welcome from the coach wasn't warm, "A guy with glasses wants to be a fighter? Can you even see without those thing son?"

Chie stepped up, "Trust me coach, he's a good fighter, I bet he can even get up to brown belt by the end of the year."

The coach shrugged, "Alright kid, I'll give you a shot, since Satonaka says you're good." He called over the rest of the team, "Yo. This is Bryan Neir. I'm putting him on the team since no one else wanted to join. Take care of him okay guys?" He turned to me, "Just sit out today and observe."

I complied, though it seemed pointless. While I was watching people fight like they were taking turns, I spotted a guy looking through the window longingly at the practice going on before leaving. I guessed he was the member that they lost. Why was he emitting anger and longing at the same time, and about the same thing?

I asked Chie when she was taking a break, "Oh you saw him? He shows up sometimes to watch practice. His name's Takeshi Akio, he used to be team captain."

"Why'd he quit?"  
"Knee injury I think, though there were some rumors about club politics being involved. I don't bother getting involved in that stuff, I'm here to get stronger after all, not to worry about my rank in the club."

I looked out the window where that Akio guy had been and wondered if there was something deeper going on. Suddenly the odd looks coming from some of the club members seemed to carry more weight. I'd have to watch my step when I next came to practice.

Except for the strange looks, it ended up being a dull day. Even the inn was subdued and sullen, a condition helped by the departure of many guests who had completed their stay. I probably should have been thankful for the chance to do nothing, but it was hard to relax without worrying for Yukiko. I was so anxious I barely even got any sleep. Knowing that the next day would be so important was just too much.

Next Chapter: A Fiery Debate

_The new character for the Strength social link is revealed: Takeshi Akio, although the link hasn't started yet, it will eventually. In the next chapter the group finally reaches Yukiko. What will go down with the shadow man on the scene? Also, one of you expressed a desire to see Bryan in a geek club, but keep in mind that it was the sports clubs gathering members on that day. Geek clubs would be cultural clubs.  
_


	14. Chapter 13

_A/N: Fans of the first version of this fic may notice that, except for the showdown, this chapter is almost identical to the chapter of the old one in which they rescued Yukiko. Well a I said, the Yukiko Arc had little in it that I didn't like, and thus only a few changes due to continuity differences appear in this chapter. Cross you're fingers, because it was soon after this chapter that the other one started going down hill in my mind. I won't make the same mistake again though. Also, the theme song for this chapter is "Perseus" by Hitomi Shimatani. It's J-pop, so you'll probably have a hard time finding lyrics, but it's basically a girl singing about a guy that is her beacon of hope._

Chapter Thirteen: A Fiery Debate

Getting up early wasn't hard, as I hadn't slept any. Mr. Amagi walked into the kitchen at the crack of dawn to find me making breakfast again. He simply sat at the table and watched silently. Despite not saying anything, I could tell he was studying me. I was surprised, not by the act itself, but by the fact he didn't seem to suspect me anymore. I didn't hold his earlier doubts against him though. I was new, foreign, and male. I personally would have suspected a new guy in the house if my daughter suddenly vanished.

"Worried about Yukiko huh." he stated.

I turned to him, "She's my friend, of course I am. All these murders going on and all." I looked back at my task, "I'm sure she's going to be fine though, she's tough despite appearances"

He laughed, "That's my line." He didn't say anything for several seconds, just continuing to watch until, "We haven't really talked much have we. I'd like to get to know you better since your living here."

I felt a little jerk inside, "No offense Mr. Amagi, but we've been over this. I..." I couldn't put it into words, probably because I didn't want to. I laughed, "I find myself not talking about it, which was something Yukiko had a problem with." the eggs were done, so I moved the pan off the heat, "I tried talking to her about her mood lately, but she clearly didn't want to bother me with her problems. I wonder if it hurts others the same way when I do it?" It did, though not quite as bad, I knew already.

"Well, sometimes you just have to handle things yourself, other times you've got to trust someone to lend you a hand. If they care, they keep reaching out."

"That's kinda profound."

"Thank you. Maybe I should have told her that."

I turned on my heels, "Don't tell me you think she ran away! Yukiko..." I shouldn't say it with such certainty, "...she doesn't seem that kind of person. I mean..."

The man looked older suddenly and I fell silent, he whispered something, then looked at me, "You're going to look for her again aren't you?"

I nodded, " Yes sir. She's my friend after all."

He frowned a little, "I'm not sure what I'll say to her when I see her again. What can a father say at a time like that?"

I smiled, "I think you'll know that when she gets back."

I finished making breakfast, served it up, and left before Mrs. Amagi got up. I didn't bother to say goodbye and neither did he, but in spite of myself I felt a little closer to him.

Right before school I strode into the Velvet Room and sat in the spot I always appeared when I came in against my will, a seat near the end of the bar, "What kinda bar doesn't have a barkeep?"

Igor ignored the remark, "Welcome. Did you need something?"

I strode around behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of vodka, mixing a drink that was 9/10th cream soda and 1/10th vodka. (Don't give me that look. I was 17 and from Mississippi, most folks there are drinking at 14. Not that I condone it.) Satisfied with the mix, I sipped my drink and walked over to the piano, which was still silent.

"I just...I don't know. I felt like getting away. Before you say it, I'm not running. I'm going back and I'll going to fulfill this contract. It's just..." I sat down on the empty piano bench. "I don't even know why I'm here right now, sipping on a weak mixer...terrified out of my wits."

"Of what?" Igor inquired.

I struggled with my words, "I can't put my feelings into words. I understand them, I'm not stupid enough to not realize when I like someone like that. I'm scared...of..." I couldn't say it, but her face appeared in my mind. Yukiko. I was afraid to face her, "I'm a freak...I glow in that world for god's sake! When I walk in that room she'll see me and she'll..."

I wanted to cry, but it had been so long that I couldn't. The atmosphere felt the usual light and heavy at the same time, but I found myself anticipating something. It took me a second to realize I wanted to see if my feelings for Yukiko were well founded. I wanted to know if she could see me like I was in that world and smile at me like she did a few times before. Not that I was in love, but it was definitely stronger than a crush.

After school, I gave Chie some supplies I had bought with the spoils of our last venture. We were ready to make another attempt. Perhaps this time we could reach her unscathed. We were ready, I was sure of it. I'd talk Yukiko down like I had with Chie, I wasn't going to fail her again.

When we reached the foot of the castle I shook my head, "I swear, if we finally get to the top and there's only a mushroom there that reveals the princess is in another castle, I'll kill myself."

Yosuke laughed, "Yeah, but today's the day, I can feel it."

"Me too."

Chie raised a confident fist into the air, "Let's save her! Come on!"

We jogged into the building, ready to clear out the small fries that had over a short time of intense practice become totally helpless against us, only to find someone had already done it. No, not just cleared them out, there were remains everywhere. It was like someone had torn them to pieces, someone angry as hell. I couldn't sense any anger though...what was going on? It was just like the other day when that weird guy appeared. We reached the top floor rather swiftly, storming through the doors we came into a massive throne room, Yukiko's shadow stood at the throne, with the real thing collapsed on her knees, Chie cried out her name, but there was no reply. It was all clear now that what I suspected was true. The castle she ruled over was the prison she was trapped in. Yukiko felt trapped at the thought of running the inn, but...it was a grand castle to her?

The shadow looked like she was looking at some tasty morsels, "Oooooh! What's this? Three princes are here to see me? My, my, are you the surprise guests that came in late? Awww, I wish I'd gotten a better look at you." She looks at us, much it was impossible to tell exactly which of us, "My, it's getting crowded in here. How about you and I go somewhere else? A land far, far away where no one knows me. If your my prince, you'd take me there won't you? Come on! Pretty please?"

Teddy blushed, "Oh, is this scoring a hot stud?"

Chie was confused, "Wait? Three princes? Does that include me too?"

Teddy seemed annoyed, "Duh, the third one has to be me!"

"Somehow I doubt that." Yosuke noted.

The shadow giggled, "Chie! Yes...she was my prince." We were taken aback to say the least, my mind was in chaos, I couldn't get any information so I was in the dark as the rest, "She always led the way, a strong prince. She used to be my prince, but when it comes down to it, Chie's just not good enough! She can't take me away from here! She can't save me!"

"Yukiko..." Chie pleaded.

The real thing stood up weakly, "Stop...it..."

The shadow didn't comply, "Historic inn? Manager training? I'm sick of all these things chaining me down! I never asked to be born here! Everything decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! I'm so sick of it! To hell with it all!"

"That's not true..." Yukiko denied it.

I stepped forward...but hesitated, Yukiko hadn't turned to see me yet...how would she react....

The shadowy man from the day before took the chance to act, stepping out from behind the throne, "You can't deny it my dear Joushi-san. You coming to this place was destiny. Here in this land you can become whatever you want to be! No one can tell you what you have to be!

Her shadow continued, "I just wanna go somewhere far away, anywhere but here. Someone please take me away! I can't leave here on my own!" it smiled, "I'm completely useless."

"Stop...please stop..." Yukiko begged.

Yamizanagi prodded, "You can stop it, just admit the pain inside, take that pain and crush it. You don't have to hurt anymore! Screw the inn! Screw your parents! They don't care about you like I do!"

"Yukiko,don't listen to him! He's not on your side!" I couldn't get anything from her, desperate I put a hand on her shoulder, "Let us in, let us help!"

Yukiko's shadow suddenly advanced and slapped me as Yukiko shied away from my hand, "Don't touch me! I hate you!"

Yukiko was getting even weaker, the hurtful words drove me back, "No...I...don't hate him."

"I have no hope if I stay and no courage to leave, so I sit on my ass hoping someday my prince will come! When my chance finally comes, a foreign prince with dashing good looks and charm to spare I get YOU! You like this place as much as I hate it!"

Yamizanagi embraced the shadow from behind, "You can get away for everything! I'll take you away! Just say your mine, that everything that is you is mine to treasure!"

I stepped forward, "Who would agree to that? What kind of loving prince is that?"

"It's what she wants, look at her! She wants to be taken away! You're nothing but a hypocrite! You want her to be who she wants to be, but you'll take her back to that trap! That hell hole! Can't you even understand what she wants?"

Her shadow growled, "Historical tradition? Pride of the town? What a bunch of bullshit!" I couldn't fight back...I couldn't think straight. I couldn't help her this time either. I was weak.

Yukiko spotted me and started crying, "Bryan...I..."

Yamizanagi laughed at me, reveling in the pain I was feeling, after all she was crying after looking at me in that form. My fears had been realized. Shadow Yukiko joined in.

Yukiko walked over and slapped her, "You're nothing like me."

"No! Don't say it!" Yosuke yelled in desperation.

"YOU'RE NOT ME!"

Hundreds of shadows rushed in, flowing into the shadow and it absorbed every shadow flocking to it, surrounding itself in pain and torment, growing to a huge size.

Yamizanagi shrugged as the transformation was taking place, "After all that trouble trying to convince you I was your prince, that I was the one that brought you here, that I wanted to save you. What a waste! Oh well, I guess there's always the next one. I'll have to remember to thank whoever's been throwing people in here! I've been so bored until this crap started happening!"

He strode from the door, but with Yukiko collapsing and in danger, I couldn't give pursuit. All I could do is grab her and carry her out of the way as the thing came crashing down where she had been standing. When I turned back around I saw the thing had transformed into an beautiful red bird in a gilded cage built into a chandler. Well, it would have been beautiful, but having Yukiko's head on a giant bird was disturbing.

"I am a Shadow...the true self." It proclaimed, "Now my sweet princes, how about we dance and make merry together?"

"I'm here for you Yukiko!" Chie insisted.

Yukiko tried to say something, but she was so weak I could barely hear her, "Bryan...I don't...hate you..."

With the adrenaline clearing my head my logical side kicked in and I realized how stupid I'd been. The shadow was always exaggerated due to lacking the personality of the host, Yukiko might have been angry, but hate me? That was stupid. I doubted she could hate anyone, "I know. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

"It's fine..." She looked at me with a warm expression.

"No it isn't. Promise me you'll talk to me about this from here on."

"I'm not..."

"Please, it hurts me when you lie like that." I admitted. Yosuke cried out for backup from me and I glanced over to see them hard pressed against her dark side. I motioned to the scene, "Look, people around you get hurt when you don't let them in. The same was true before this weird crap happened. Both then and now we're here for you. Promise me that you'll open up to people after this and be honest with yourself and us. I want to see that smile of yours more often."

A door opened in her heart as she realized I was right, "I...I promise."

I stood, feeling content at last. Yukiko was smiling again, and despite how weird I looked she didn't seem to mind. I felt the same resolution that I had felt the previous day and surprise crossed Yukiko's face has Izanagi's hands fell on my shoulders. I lifted the card to the air, offering the hope for Yukiko's bright future as a testament to power, "Yukiko Amagi! Witness my resolution! AWAKEN! IZANAGI!" I smashed the card on my face and it formed the familiar form of the warrior around me.

Yukiko wasn't sure what to think, "You...changed into..."

I turned and raised a hand at her shadow, channeling my will into dropping its defense before pelting it with a bolt of lightning. The way that cage was swinging I wouldn't be able to get close easily. The problem became all the worse when it screamed in rage and with a flap of its wings sent a gust of wind in all directions, which ignited on the candles and became a roaring inferno. Remembering Yukiko was behind me I froze in place and braced myself against it, it hurt like heck but all in all I was fine, Yosuke and Chie had not been so lucky. Jiraiya tended their wounds and in my desire to shield them I realized I could actually boost their defenses. On at a time mind you, but still.

"Chie, get Yukiko to the far corner, the flames don't reach that far!"

Chie was over to us in a blink, helping Yukiko to her feet as I shot the shadow with another bolt and tried to draw its attention away from them. It proved useless as the thing unleashed another room-filling blaze, and with her helping Yukiko, Chie would be unable to guard either of them.

I dove in front of the blast, taking the full brunt of it in their place. It was as devastating as it had been before, so much so that I found myself slouching, and to my shock Izanagi unconscious on the floor beside me. There went that option. The shadow was strong, her pain had been so strong and it had taken this for me to get her to open up.

I heard Yukiko shout something, but I couldn't tell what as a ball of fire struck my square in the quest and sent me crashing into the far wall, I screamed in agony. I wasn't on fire, but it hurt so damn much, and I couldn't get up. It was just like when I'd been in Izanagi's form and hit by that gust of wind. It reminded me of how easily Yosuke and Chie knocked over some shadows or been knocked over by shadows we'd fought with elemental attacks. That explained it...Izanagi was vulnerable to wind, but fire, Yukiko's element, was my own weak point.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

Everyone had come to save me, I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, and what this strange place was, but they'd come to save me. Confronting that thing that looked like me was terrifying, why'd it have to blurt all that stuff out? Deep down I knew it wasn't lying, but I hated myself for it. When Bryan-kun grabbed me and pulled me away from the twisted monster, I almost fought against it. I wanted it to crush me. After all, what was the point of such a hopeless and useless person like me existing if I had the nerve to think things like that. That changed, looking into his deep gray eyes I found myself understanding. They were my friends, they would still like me. All that time I had been holding back because of fear, fearing of hurting my parents and troubling, maybe even losing my friends. Those eyes...those eyes told me things...things I needed to hear. They confirmed the words coming from his mouth. I needed to open up.

Bryan wanted me to promise him that. It was all he wanted from me. As he said that I thought back to the expression on his face when that thing had said I hated him...he'd looked so crushed. He cared so much for people and I had the nerve to resent him for something so silly. I promised him that small thing with every fiber of my being and he smiled that smile of his. Then he turned into that guy...no, a nobler-looking version, a true knight that really fought for me, a knight that stood and took a blast of fire for me. My friends were standing before me, fighting for my sake and getting hurt. It was amazing, the power they had, and they used it for pointless me. A person that was so selfish.

Chie helped me to a safe place in the room as Bryan tried to lure it away. I gasped as another surge of flame erupted from the giant bird, and Bryan dashed to take the blow for us, but he lived through that impossible power. And though he seemed to loose his armor he still lived through another blast, standing up and yelling at the thing.

When did they get so strong? I'd spotted Yosuke motioning to the strange specter at his side which closed Bryan's wounds with some kind of magic, did those things make them more powerful somehow? I was distracted from those thoughts when I saw Bryan charge the thing, I wanted to cry out, but I was still not strong enough. To my surprise and delight, he dodged the flames coursing towards him and barked some orders. Chie rejoined the fight and they started circling the thing like a well oiled fighting machine.

I felt bad, but having such friends at my side, friend willing to face such a thing for me, was somehow...it somehow made me feel like maybe I wasn't so bad. I felt stronger thanks to them. Standing up I shouted to the battling Bryan, "Bryan! Do your best!"

He turned and smiled, then looked to the others, "All out physical attacks, hit it with everything you've got!"

They descended upon the bird like a wave with those specters at their side, evading the flames and tearing into the monstrosity from my soul. It was almost poetic in a brutal way. It tried to retreat into the cage, but Bryan climbed in and held the door open, clearing the way for the thing that Chie called Tomoe to stab it in the chest. My friends fanned out away from the dark me as it cried out and fell to the ground from it's perch. It then fell into nothingness, leaving only the part that looked like me.

As I walked over to it, my friends ran to meet me, Yosuke was concerned I'd reject it again, "It's alright Yukiko, we all have something we don't want others to see."

I frowned a little, it was painful, but I'd come to terms with it. Chie looked happy and on the edge of tears at the same time, "I'm sorry Yukiko. I was so self-centered that I never understood what you were going through. I'm your friend and still..." She broke down, "Oh I'm so sorry."

"Chie..." I replied regretfully, that was the reaction I was afraid she'd have.

"I was always jealous of you Yukiko. You had everything that I didn't. That jealousy was like a wall, and I was so lonely! I wanted you to need me, but I was the one that needed you. I can't do anything right without you, I caused so much trouble for Yosuke and the others. If I'd lost you, I don't know what I'd do!"

I hugged her with a sad smile, "Chie, I never saw the real you either, I was too busy looking for the easy way out." I looked at the dark side of me, "'I want to run away' 'I want someone to save me' Those thoughts are part of myself. This is me, I understand that now."

The dark me nodded and started glowing, I heard in a warm female voice, "I am thou, thou art I...the facade to face life's hardships has been made manifest. Know thyself and know my name."

I fell to my knees and whispered, "Konohana Sakuya. My persona." The 'persona' changed into a card and entered me, I could feel it in my very soul. Strength to face life's hardships, to fulfill my promise.

I looked over to see all but one friend looking deeply worried, the calm one extended his hand to help me up, "Tired?"

"...yeah, but..." I took Bryan's hand and he helped me stand up.

"You feel stronger than ever." he smiled.

"...yeah." I smiled back. I'd promised after all. It felt good...I felt good.

A strange bear creature approached and asked bluntly, "So who threw you in here?"

"Huh? Who are you? Rather...what are you?"

The thing smiled, "I'm Teddie!" back to business, "So who threw you in?"

I tried to think about it, but my head hurt a bit, everything was still fuzzy, "I don't know, that guy claimed he did at first...but I don't think so."  
Bryan nodded, moving over to the persona whose form he had briefly taken on, "Probably wasn't him. He said he was just toying with you."

Yosuke nodded in agreement, "Plus I think that guy would stand out, someone would have seen him." he looked to me, "Do you remember anything before you woke up here?"

I tried to clear my head again, "I think someone called my name...but my memory's a blur...I can't remember who it was...sorry."

The bear-thing sighed, "No new clues then."

Yosuke crossed his arms, "At least now we know for sure someone's throwing people in here."

Chie sighed, "Well let's get Yukiko-san back home, she looks exhausted." She turned to Bryan, "What are you doing over there?"

Bryan seemed confused at the reaction as he helped Izanagi up and the figure departed into the shadows, "Um, you guys can't see him?"

Yosuke shook his head, "No. Who?"

"Izanagi." He stated simply.

I looked at the two, why didn't they see that warrior figure? "You mean the persona thing you turned into?"

"Yeah."

"I saw it."

They all looked at me strangely. Chie scratched her head, "Come to think of it, Yukiko, why aren't you freaking out about the glowing veins?"

"Glowing...veins? What are you talking about?" I looked at my skin, nothing.

Bryan walked over to me and looked me in the eyes, "You really don't see the veins glowing in my skin?"

I shook my head, confused, "No. Should I?"

Chie sighed heavily, messing her own hair up in frustration, "This just keeps getting more confusing, Let's just get Yukiko home and think about this later. Thanks again Teddie for all your help."

Everyone agreed, Teddie seemed surprised, "You've just going to leave me here?"

Yosuke was confused, "What are you talking about, you live in this world."

I walked over and smiled, patting the little guy's head, "Don't worry, I'll come back and visit soon. So be a good boy until then okay?"

The bear blushed and meowed for some reason, "My, it's getting crowded in here. How about you and I go somewhere else?"

Bryan walked over and shoved him lightly, leaving Teddie stuck on his back, "Stop that, you're creeping me out."

Eventually, we got outside that strange world and sat down in the food court. They brought me up to speed on the situation and I told them everything I knew about the man who called himself Yamizanagi. As weird as everything was I could only believe it. What reason did I have to not believe it? Coming to a dead end, we decided to call it a day. Since I couldn't remember who'd attacked me and we had know idea about Bryan's strange powers, the shadowy man with similar ones, or why I could see Bryan's persona, we had nothing to go on. We'd just have to 'wait and see' as Bryan put it. I was tired, so Chie walked with Bryan and me back to the inn. I was a bit dazed to be honest, and some part of me wished Chie hadn't come so I could talk to Bryan. Strictly as friends of course.

The police were waiting and When Chie said they'd found me wandering lost in the woods, they seemed skeptical, then frustrated when I said I didn't remember anything over the few days I'd been gone, and grilled me some more after Chie left. Bryan tried to keep them in line, but they ended up grilling him as well. I didn't hold it against them. It was there job after all. Understandably though, Bryan seemed a bit annoyed.

When I finally got to bed it wasn't a very restful sleep. I found myself sitting at a bar dressed in the most beautiful gown I'd ever seen. The music was that same familiar tune that Bryan had hummed to me days before, but it seemed to be only a small part that repeated over and over. On the piano sat a woman looking loving at the man at the piano, but not playing along with the instrument at her side. The only patron was a tall and lanky old man with a long nose, sipping on a drink.

He spoke in a shallow voice, "Oh my, seems like another guest has finally arrived. Welcome...to the Velvet Room."

I looked around at the beautiful but entirely purple room and to my shock, saw an even more stunned Bryan in an expensive tuxedo.

Next Chapter: The Change

_Big twist in the story! The pianist appeared as Yukiko joins the Velvet Room and the song stuck in Bryan's head is playing! Will this new resident complete Bryan's powers? What does Yukiko's presence in the Velvet Room mean? What is the significance of the song? What kind of power hides in Yukiko and why can she the specter that is Izanagi? Why doesn't she see the veins? What will be Bryan's reaction to this sudden change in the Velvet Room? Here the plot starts to diverge truly from the original fic, recycled content will soon nearly vanish entirely. The next chapter might take a little longer than normal, but look forward to it.  
_


	15. Chapter 14

_A/N: Okay folks, theme song for this chapter is once again the blues version of "Layla" by Eric Clapton. As said previously, all chapters with Layla as a theme song are vital to the overall theme of the fic. Enjoy. Oh and social linky goodness abounds as not one but TWO social links start up in this chapter, well three if you count the one Yukiko forms, and another is strengthened. It also features the debut of the most ostentatious prom dress IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD (which is actually symbolic and will be explained later)! Readers will also discover I put way too much detail into my characters as Bryan's semi-allergy is revealed!_

Chapter Fourteen: The Change

When Chie and I brought Yukiko home it was very quickly a circus. Everyone was so relieved and worried about her condition. It felt wrong to lie to them, but we really had no choice in the matter. They wouldn't believe what had really happened, and any less than a full on fabrication would make the police assume she was lying to protect me. The story was pretty simple really. Chie, Yosuke, and I had gone into the woods to look for her, as it had been the only place I could risk searching alone. Chie'd had spotted her collapsed near a large tree.

Yukiko put on a good act of looking ashamed and embarrassed, "I'm so sorry everyone, I just needed some time to myself, so I went for a walk. I should have stayed put the moment I realized I was lost. Maybe I'd have been found sooner."

The lie covered all the bases, the eyes on me were lessened because I hadn't done the finding, the cops hadn't found her because she'd been wandering around before she collapsed, and it kept her parents from worrying about her having been kidnapped. We told the cops the same story for obvious reasons. How would be possibly explain to their satisfaction that she was back after being kidnapped and not paint me even more as a suspect? I mean, amnesia? Like they'd believe that she wasn't just lying to protect me. Funny how we had to lie because the truth was unacceptable.

The questioning wasn't too bad and we had taken the precautions of planning every detail of our answers, down to the tin differences that would naturally happen in between testimonies. Having writing and acting as hobbies, and a keen understanding of he mind, was proving very helpful indeed. The cops had no other option than to accept our story as fact for the time being, and Yukiko only had to endure some gentle reprimanding, which she actually seemed glad to receive. I imagine she was still beating herself up for the mistakes she'd made and the fact she was planning to leave town eventually.

Once the cops left I finally managed to sit down and right that reply to Naoto-chan, it'd been many days since I'd gotten her last letter, and given our usual pace of correspondence she'd soon be wondering where my letter was. Thankfully the size of Japan made the postal system fairly rapid, so the letter would probably get there relatively quickly.

When I finally got in bed, I fell asleep almost immediately, the familiar piano tune that had been stuck in my head drifted into my ears, calling out to be heard as I woke to find myself in the Velvet Room...looking at Yukiko. She was sitting there beside me, looking at the grand purple ballroom and at her dress with eyes full of wonder. After waking up in one strange place and nearly being killed, I was surprised she wasn't scared. To my amazement their was a pianist at the piano as well, playing that tune, looking just as neutral in every way as the lady sitting on the piano gazing at him fondly. Margaret looked content, but still wasn't playing her instrument.

Yukiko stood and took in all the sights, turning slowly in the elegant gown she was wearing. The shawl and the skirt swished gently with the movement, as did her hair, making her look like some fantasy. The gown itself suited her perfectly. A mild but deep pink color made up most of the dress, making a simple but elegant border for the intricate scarlet embroidery atop pink-tinted white that made up a vertical band starting at the front hem of the skirt and continuing up to split at the bust, framing the modestly low cut collar and making up the entirety of the ruffles draped at her shoulders in place of straps. That embroidered band continued to the back of the collar, which was also a little low as well, but not backless, showing only the very top of her shoulder blades. With shoulders and a neck line like hers, it was almost too much for me. Did I mention the shawl? It was a thin see-though thing, a gentle pink similar in color to the embroidered band, it wasn't meant to conceal though, like any well-made shawl it was meant to compliment the dress, and it did. It was actually more of a robe, with loose sleeves that danced down her slender arms and a hem that nearly reached that of the dress. The shoulders of it draped off the shoulders as well. With the dainty thing pinned closed at the stomach straight down to the hem, it formed an extra ruffle accenting the one already at the dress' shoulders and the fabric overlapped at the decorative band, making the parts of it that it covered seem like faded scarlet with crimson stitching. Covering the exposed back a little was a hood as see though as the rest of the robe. If she put that hood upon her head the effect would be profound, turning her into an almost impossible, wraith-like avatar of (pink) beauty and grace.

So precise in design, every aspect was...

"Bryan?" the slow-mo twirl of the girl before me ceased as she had turned around and seen me, I would have stood up, but I wasn't sure that I could. My heart was beating so hard the sight of her in that dress I might of fainted or something, "Why am I dreaming of you?" She thought about it, then something made sense to her, "Oh it must be because I wanted to talk but didn't get the chance to before I went to bed."

I wanted to speak, but it probably would have come out mush.

Igor spoke for me, surprisingly standing as he did so and giving a bow, "Ah, another guest has arrived, it has been quiet a while since we've had more than one guest at a time. Given our accommodations however, such things were to be expected." he strode over behind the bar, throwing a towel over his forearm like a bartender going back on duty, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Igor. On the stage are my assistants, the pianist is Martin, the lady in waiting is Margaret. Like me they are here to aid our guests."

Yukiko, confused, looked at me, "Is this a dream?"

The seriousness of the situation helped me put aside how good she looked in that dress and answer, "Does it feel like one?"

She shook her head.

Igor was about to say something but I stopped him, "Let me guess, you're about to explain how this place is the Velvet Room and is between mind and matter, between dream and reality, and that is a place that only those bound by a contract may enter. Right?"

"Correct." he nodded, slightly annoyed, before turning to Yukiko, "My dear, like Bryan here, you have entered into a contract upon which your very future rides. If this contract goes unfulfilled, your future may prove to be forever lost." He fetched some tea from behind the bar and started pouring a few cups.

"Wait," I said, trying to understand everything, "Do you mean when she promised me to be more open with others? Is that kind of thing really big enough to warrant her needing this place?"

Yukiko sat down beside me, where she had been when I first saw her, "My future...could be destroyed?"

Igor placed the our cups down in front of us, "Indeed, but as with Bryan, we are here to ensure such a disaster does not happen."

She looked at me, uncertain, "You're in a contract?"

I nodded, "To be honest though I can't remember what it is...but so far I feel like I'm on the right track."

Igor nodded, "As you walk your paths in fulfilling your contracts, you will face choices and build bonds with others. These social links will grant you power as they have granted to Bryan, but your roles in fate is yet to be written. You both must take responsibility for your actions, both in the future and in the past."

Yukiko was still a bit overwhelmed, but she was actually taking it pretty good, "I...I guess I can do that." she shook her head with a grin at the ridiculous situation, not fully believing it, "Talk about incentive to change. My whole future could be gone huh?"

Margaret suddenly turned to us and spoke up, "It is time for us to explain our full purpose. Bryan, as I said before, I am able to recall personas you have called upon before, even if you have fused them with my master's assistance. For Yukiko, I am able to recall powers and abilities she has learned, no matter how long ago she has forgotten them. All these are weaved into the lines of the song of your fates."

The pianist, Martin, spoke without turning, in a voice that was deep but smooth and as neutral as his companion's, "I am the composer, scribing your parts in the tune as you develop. When you feel you have gathered enough power, come to me and I shall refine that power for you. Bryan, as you know the remnants of emotions and will that you take within yourself from shadows are fragments of the psyche. I can shape these pieces into a single whole, making new personas and thus new forms for you to take on. Yukiko, you will find yourself taking your fate in an even firmer grasp, and I will be here to help you become the person you wish to be."

Yukiko glanced at me before replying, "Um...thank you..."

Igor smiled, "My role is also to give life to new power, for I can fuse personas together to form entirely new ones, and he same applies to the knowledge our dear Yukiko will gather over time."

I thought about it a moment, "So I can take on many different forms to use their strengths. Yukiko can learn multiple abilities and decide what powers she wants to have?"

"Exactly." Igor nodded.

"Interesting."

Yukiko looked at me, "This is real?"

"Yeah."

"I just got out of that place and I find out I still...?" She looked at her hands, not sure of what to say.

I almost put a hand on her shoulder but remembered it was bare and decided against it, "Hey, you just have to keep your word. You can start by telling me why you're so spooked, I thought you'd be a bit more optimistic about this?"

"I'm just a little..." she shook her head, "No, I'm not going to lie. That guy, Yamizanagi, before you came in and saved me...he promised me everything I wanted...."

"He just wanted to twist you into something you're not."

She looked at me, tears welling up, "Isn't that who I am? That person that hates the inn and wants to run away? I do you know. I do want to run away!" she slammed her hands on the table and Igor took the cue to wander into the back room, "I don't want to...to...!"

"Then don't"

"But..." she looked to me again.

I met her eyes, "Just because that shadow is part of you, it doesn't mean it's the only part of you. The real you is a person that cares so much she'd rather go half-crazy than burden someone else, not some selfish waif."

"Sounds familiar. If I recall, you keep putting my needs above your own."

"I'm better at it than you."

She laughed, "Apparently." Yukiko looked down at her hands again, "Thanks for that by the way. You're such a nice person and I had the nerve to resent you for something like that. I was so wrapped up in my own problems I was trying to make you into my prince."

I fidgeted uncomfortably.

She waved her hands, blushing, "Don't get the wrong idea! It's not like...I mean I tried a lot of ways out and kept resenting them when they fell short of some unrealistic expectation I had. I was always just too afraid to take things into my own hands, but now..." she balled up her fists and swallowed hard, "I refused to take over the Amagi Inn! There! I said it!" she smiled, a burden lifted off of her.

I gave her a thumbs up, "That's the ticket, that isn't selfish in and of itself. There's no reason to hate yourself for it. Now what do you plan to do now that you've taken a grip on your destiny?"

She looked at me and shrugged, "I'm not sure. I guess I need to look at my other options. Will you help me find some information on job licenses?"

"So you want my help now?"

She smiled, "Of course. You're good at it after all."

"Dang straight. You can count on me."

She took a sip of the tea Igor had given us, "I know. So when I ask you to promise me something, I know you will, and that you'll keep it."

"If you really need me to."

She looked me straight in the eyes, "Then promise me you'll open up more too. I can't change alone, I'm willing to admit that now. We have to do this together if I'm ever going to be strong enough to be on my own."

"You're plenty strong."

"Just promise me." she insisted.

"Okay, I promise." I offered a handshake as confirmation of the vow and she took my hand. I suddenly felt stronger as a bond formed between us and a strange warm feeling passed over me, maybe I was blushing, but I don't know.

Yukiko however pulled her hand away suddenly and was blushing. "So that's a social link?"

"...y-yeah." I said uncomfortably.

Yukiko changed the topic, "I'm not used to this kind of thing. Talking with people about what's really on my mind, especially with a boy my age. Of all the places I thought I'd talk to you, a supernatural bar in a purple ballroom was hardly one of them."

I laughed, "Yeah...I'm not quite used to the place myself either." I took a long drink of the tea and meant to say something else but I suddenly found that place fading away. I was waking up.

I rubbed my eyes and glanced out the window at the rising sun. It was the crack of dawn already, and most of the staff would be getting ready for the day. It was also time for me to get ready for school. Yukiko was still tired from the whole incident, and Chie's morning schedule had changed (I had the suspicion she had started jogging in the morning), so I was walking to school alone that day. I grabbed the letter to Naoto of my desk and slipped it into my bag before changing. It wasn't hard, as I'd left my uniform out the previous night and had slept only in my boxer briefs.

When I stepped out of my room, I took a moment to listen to the bustle of the staff downstairs. I thought about going to say a quick goodbye to Yukiko, but decided to not bother him. Instead I put my letter in the mail and made the long walk to school. Well, to the bus stop and then the school.

Scary looking math teachers, creepy composition teachers with puppet fixations, and King Moron aside, the morning went by smoothly. Lunch brought surprises though, as a girl came up to my desk with a small lunch box. Her hair was black and in a popular style, and she wore the female uniform like everyone else, but in an odd fashion choice was wearing jogging pants and sneakers under the skirt. It was Sachiko Sayuri, the helpful girl from the front of the class.

She presented the lunch with a bow and a blush, "Here, Neir-san! I noticed you never bring a lunch so I made you a bento! You should really keep your strength up if you're in a sports club!"

I looked at the small box curiously and took it slowly. I had always thought they only gave bentos in anime and stuff like that, but whatever, "Thank you, Sachiko-san. I'm sure it'll taste good. I don't have practice today though."

"Oh! Um...right...," she fidgeted, "Anyway you can call me Yuri-chan if you like, all my friends do."

She had friends? I'd never seen her with anyone, "Alright, Yuri-chan." that sounded kinda familiar...I couldn't place it though, "You have have to call me Bryan though, since we're gonna be friends and all."

She blushed, "O-okay!"

I opened the bento and closed it immediately at the smell, "Garlic..."

She looked crestfallen, "I-I heard it's good for stamina. Is something wrong?"

I stomached the desire to throw up as I opened it again, "There's not too much of it, I can eat this much."

She gasped, "Bryan-kun! You're allergic to garlic?"

"Only a little, I can eat a small amount of it. I found out I can't take large amounts the hard way. One of my relatives loves the stuff. I ate some of her spaghetti and I was bedridden for two days."

She moved to take the bento away, "Y-you can just have my lunch, you don't have to eat-"

"That would be rude, I said I can eat this amount so it's fine." Somehow I managed to get it down as the girl watched in awe, "There. Thank you very much, it tasted pretty good."

She blushed hard, apparently having forgotten to eat herself, "Um...t-thank you. Next time I won't put any garlic in!" For some reason she ran off. Leaving me wondering what the heck had just happened. No wonder those guys in anime always seemed so oblivious...some girls are just odd. Regardless I felt that familiar strengthening sensation. A new social link?

Anyway, with nothing else to do after school I found myself talking to Yosuke over steak croquets in the shopping district. They were tasty, though kinda strange, a fact that Yosuke confirmed.

"Who thought of putting steak in croquets huh? There are good though."

"Yeah."

He took a bite and chewed the heck out of it before swallowing, "A bit though though. Chie says this stuff is nice and tender. What kind of teeth does that girl have?" he chuckled.

It wasn't all that tough to me, "Maybe she just eats more steaks than you?"

He smiled and shrugged, "Well she does love her steak."

"You two known each other long?"

He shook his head, "Not really, I've only lived here a little over six months after all. She and Saki-senpai were pretty much the only two people who treated me normal from the get-go."

"Yukiko treated you different?"

"Of course not, she was her usual shy self, didn't really treat me an particular way."

"Ah."

"Yeah, but until recently Chie and I were really more just acquaintances, I'd be talking with some people and she'd be happening by and slip into the conversation, usually when I was talking about food."

"Yeah you mentioned that earlier." I chuckled.

"How's Yukiko doing by the way?"

"Good, she's mainly just really tired. Thought I get the feeling she'll come back really refreshed pretty soon."

"Good to hear, maybe she'll recall something soon. We could really use a lead."

A pair of housewives walked by, stopping as they spotted Yosuke then scurrying off to gossip about him. They were saying all sorts of things I guessed were typical. Mostly about Junes running the local shops out of business.

Yosuke took it in stride, "Ah, my infamy strikes again."

"Must be hard." I thought back to the incident in the TV world in which the taunts about Saki working for Junes quickly turned the place into Yosuke's hell.

He shook his head, "Not really...I think everyone in town knows who I am, but most of the hate is really directed at my parents. Does suck that I have to watch my manners all the time though."

"I can relate."

"Hmm?"

"Back home I was the guy everyone in my family came to with their problems, even with my few friends I was always the stable square guy. I always had to be a certain way. Always had to keep a strong image and a clear head no matter what was bothering me."

He frowned suddenly, "Sounds a little familiar. Just to let you know man you don't have to be like that around me. I know you're tough, you can't hurt that image by venting occasionally."

I nodded, then put on a smile. It felt like our bond had strengthened a bit as we grew closer, "Same to you dude. It's not like you can hide from the awesome psychic might of my mind anyway."

He laughed, "True, your power is too much for me man." He stood, "I'm gonna get some more croquets. You want some?"

"Sure, to go, I'll share them with Yukiko later since she isn't going to be able to get out much."

He gave me a curious look and then nodded, "Right, that's a good idea."

Yukiko's Perspective

I woke up again in the evening, having gone back to sleep several times during the day, each time having up with that strange warm feeling that lulled my already tired body back into dreamland. None of the dreams I dreamed were anything like that room had been. My mind couldn't make up anything like that. It couldn't recreate that beautiful dress I'd been wearing, or the soft feel of the silk fabric or the gentle touch of that shawl-like robe caressing my arms. It had felt like I was wrapped up in good feelings. I couldn't help but want to go back to that dream that had not been a dream.

And that suit Bryan had been in, it had suit him so well. Simple, but a strange dynamic feel to it. Though just like any tuxedo, there was something about the cut of it, the lines were slightly skewed and dramatic, the cuffs subdued somehow and messy in a way that worked. The undershirt was white with a silver-blue tint that reminded me of his eyes. We'd been dressed for a ball, but...

I hid in my blanket at thought of dancing like that with him. It was just too embarrassing. I had taken dance lessons, but only in traditional Japanese dances, and those weren't for couples. Even though doing those steps always made some part of me feel pretty, it had always seemed a lonely way to dance. Maybe I could take some ballroom dance lessons?

I thrashed about, shaking the thoughts from my head. Why did I want to learn all of a sudden? To dance in that place, in that dress, with him in that suit? Ha! There I was, having nearly died or fallen into the hands of some creepy shadow guy, and I was trying to run off into some fantasy world again. I had to face forward and look to the future. That was obvious.

My thoughts wandered back to that warm feeling from the social link, when Bryan promised he would be there for me, help me. I snuggled in again at those feelings, such warm feelings that tempted me back to sleep. Even though I wanted to be self-reliant, it was still nice to have someone to take care of you. Someone who understood and would never judge, who was willing to bear all my pain if it meant I didn't have to feel it. It made me feel somewhat nostalgic, though I wasn't sure why.

I had more good dreams.

Next Chapter: Strength

_In the next chapter, the Strength social link actually starts. I'm still unsure of the pacing between incidents, as if I try to recount every single random event between them it will inevitably make the story 55 or more chapters long. I think I'll be limiting most of the stuff between kidnappings to 2-3 chapters depending on how the flow goes and how much happens in the gap. I planned to include lots of social links in the story, but I'm not sure, I'll probably have to limit them to only a few. Ozawa Yumi (the Drama Club version of the Sun Arcana) is due for an appearance soon, and I wanted her link to be a part of the story, but I might not have space. So I'll ask you folks: Would you enjoy a separate fic (still in continuity) solely about the Ozawa Yumi link and Bryan's activities in the drama club? What other links would you want to see in at least separate fics (keeping in mind that Yukiko might be doing some of the links the MC had instead of Bryan)? The Dojima family and new versions of the Strength, Temperance, and Tower social links are going to be in the story, and so are the party links, so don't worry about those._

_NOTICE!!!: My updating rate may be hampered due to the fact that my Internet connection suddenly up and quit on me. As you can see though I managed to get a connection long enough to get an update out. You'll also note that my writing rate didn't diminish, as I have actually posted two chapters at once this time. It may be at least a week before I can update again, or reply to any reviews, but I'll try and keep a steady pace with the writing part and post at least two chapters each update from here on._


	16. Chapter 15

_A/N: Okay, short chapter in word count, but that's because this bit is dialogue heavy. It would be longer, but it felt right to end the chapter there. For our theme song this chapter we have another Queen song, this one made popular by the Highlander movies and the Highlander TV show (which I happen to be a fan of). That's right this chapter's theme song is "Princes of the Universe". Also, with this chapter this version is officially longer than the original, and has had a higher word count for a while now. It's kinda funny how we haven't even reached the Kanji Arc yet, when we'd already saved Kanji by this time in the other. Anyway, enjoy!_

Chapter Fifteen: Strength

"Bryan-kun! I brought you another bento today! I checked and this time you do have practice!" Sayuri again. It was time for lunch and most people had already left to eat.

"Um...well, that was nice of you." I opened the box, no garlic this time either, "Thanks I guess, you really don't have to. I don't even usually get hungry until later." I closed the lid again.

She smiled, "Well, make sure you eat it! Remember you have my support! Show those guys in the karate club your stuff okay Bryan-kun? I won't forgive you if you let them hurt you!" With that she wandered of back to the front of the class to her usual spot near the bulletin board.

Chie, who was just getting up to leave for her own meal, scratched her head, "What's up with her? Does she like you or something?"

I shook my head, "I'm not sure, she's hard to read. I suspect she might be a psychopath."

Chie went wide-eyed.

"I'm kidding. She probably just doesn't have many friends, maybe you should try talking to her a bit."

Chie waved her hands back and forth, "Ooh no. I'm not going anywhere near her, you just talked to her once and now she's stalking you. I have enough on my plate without that."

What? "Stalking me? She's just made me lunch a couple times trying to be nice."

"Well either way don't forget we do have practice today, you'll be showing them what you can do, just like Sadako said."

"Oh come on, there's no need to call her names. She's hardly the chick from 'The Ring'. If anything she's the lady with the sore throat from Ju-on." I pulled out a book, 'Sun Tzu on the Art of War'. I'd read it already, but still, "Anyway, yeah I'll be there. Since we're waiting for Yukiko to recover before going to that place again I should keep my skills sharp. Plus, her parents are making me take a week off anyway."

"Hmm? Why?"

"They don't want me working myself to the bone I guess. Maybe I have been pushing it a little."

Chie smiled, "Yeah, you have seemed pretty wiped lately. Don't push yourself today."

"Yeah."

"Well, see ya, I'm gonna go eat."

"Yep."

Chie left and I heard some students talking about the notice board in the shopping district having some part-time job listings on it. I filed that knowledge away for later and started reading again.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

"Got any threes?" I asked with little real enthusiasm as I looked at the cards in my hand.

Miku-san shook her head, "No, go fish."

I drew a card, a seven, and threw it down, Miku-san picked it up and made another pair, "You know, if I didn't no you better I'd swear you were cheating."

She feigned injury at that remark, "Why Yukiko-chan, you wound me with your words. By any chance do you have any Jacks?"

I sighed handing the card to her, she'd won again. I set my card down it disgust and looked out the window, "Isn't this just the most cliché scene ever? A person with absolutely nothing to do playing Go Fish with someone who has better things to do."

"Now Yukiko-chan, your parents told me to mind that you got your rest and keep you company and I am more than happy to. Besides, I have enough staff to take some time to talk with my little Yuki-chan. We haven't had a chat in quite a while."

I smiled, "Yes, I believe I was eight years old at the time, I was just getting to the age I was allowed to serve guests."

"You were such a shy little one, cute as a button too." She grinned, "You haven't changed much."

"Miku-san!" I tossed my stuffed elephant at her playfully.

She laughed, then set the toys aside to get serious, "Maybe I should say you're more like you used to be before. You have a lot more confidence in your eyes, but you seem just as content as you were that day, when you'd decided you were going to try your best."

I smiled.

A devilish grin crossed her face, "You were still shy and clumsy though, cute as a button."

I didn't have any more stuffed animals so I tossed my pillow at her. She caught it and stood, putting it back behind me and getting my little elephant back at my side. It didn't feel right to have someone dotting over me so much, "You don't have to be so kind to me Miku-san. I don't really deserve it."

"Nonsense, you've just been long in the woods for days, let us spoil you a bit. She held up the stuffed toy for me to hold, "Now what was it you used to call this thing?"

I blushed a little and grabbed the old thing, "Mr. Puffles."

She laughed, "That's right, Mr. Puffles. Now you just hug Mr. Puffles and I'll get you some chicken soup."

The sounded good, "I'm not nine years old anymore."

She was already over at the thermos pouring it, "What was that Yukiko-chan?"

I tried my best to smile, but I remembered how I had decided to leave the inn after graduation and I felt guilty, "It's nothing." she handed the mug to me, "Thanks."

I remembered times years ago when it was the busy season and I got sick. My parents couldn't take any time away to tend to me, so they'd send Miku-san, who was constantly like a mother to every young employee in the inn. A felt a bond awaken between us, no more like reawaken. With my newfound power that remade bond strengthened me as a 'social link'. It felt warm, but not in the same way as it had with-

"You know, we should thank Neir-san." she stated suddenly.

I nearly choked on my sip, "Huh? You mean for helping find me?"

She smiled wide, "That too, but it seems like he's been trying so hard to help you cheer up."

I looked at my hands.

"He even made your breakfast this morning."

At that note I snapped to attention, "That wasn't you?"

"No, that was him, he told me to take it in and not say anything about it."

I rolled my eyes. That guy...! "He really does think he's my father. For crying out loud."

For some reason Miku-san snickered.

"What?"

"Oh nothing." I got the distinct feeling she was hiding something, clearly something she found really amusing, maybe even cute.

_Bryan's Perspective_

"Kneer!" the coach stated firmly, mispronouncing my last name, "Strap on some gloves and leg guards. I wanna see what you can do."

"It pounced 'near', sir, though I have been known to knee people on occasion." I quipped, making a joke that someone who didn't speak an English probably wouldn't get.

"Just get ready for full-contact."

I had already gotten one glove on at that point, it was a nice one, the kind that cushioned like a boxing glove but still let you grip. I'd never worn shin guards, but hey were the kind that cover the top of your feet as well. My inexperience with the leg guards was compounded by the fact that the loose legs of my gi (karate uniform) kept getting in the way. I got all the gear on relatively quickly considering and was just thinking about how long it would take to get out of the white belt division when I spotted that guy who'd been watching the other day, this time looking specifically at me with a mix of interest and something odd and unexpected: concern.

"Umato! You're a white belt. Let's see how he handles you."

I turned to see one of my fellow white belts step into one of the sparring circles made with erasable marker on the floor of the gym. There was no padding, but that was pretty common in classes for arts that didn't focus on throws. I swallowed hard at all the eyes on me, the entire club was watching to see what the new guy was bringing to the team, something that probably wouldn't happen in a regular class.

Chie pumped her fist in the air, "Crush him, Bryan!"

One of the black belts who had been giving me a cutting glare glanced at Chie and back to me, then to Umato, "Don't be a rookie! Show him how we do things!"

That animosity did not go unnoticed as I stepped into the circle, nor was the fact that the guy had a large amount of the members standing near him and that their attitudes seemed to shift to match his. That dude had to be the current captain, and he already hated me. Regardless, I had to focus on what I was doing.

The white belt wearing Umato proved his rookie status when he decided to try to hard to impress. He rotated around and tried one of the spinning kick moves. It was too sloppy to tell if he was trying for a roundhouse or a crescent kick, but it was pointless either way, I blocked it effortlessly by raising my forearm at an angle, stopping the kick and carrying the leg up. The poor guy lost his already shaky balance and fell over. I didn't even have to step in or strike or anything.

"Umato! What are you doing? Stick to what you know!" the coach yelled.

The guy got up quickly, I hadn't done anything after all and advanced, shifting into a horse stance (legs bent and to the side like riding a horse) to try and launch a punch. Before he even drew back his hand he was on the floor again. All I'd done was shove him in the center of the chest.

"Don't use that stance in a fight kid." I said plainly.

The coach was annoyed, after all, I hadn't even taken a stance of my own yet, "Do I have to guide you through this Umato?"

The poor rookie got to his feet and took on a far better 'modified horse stance', one foot forward with toes pointed at the opponent, back leg bearing most of the weight and toes pointed to the side. At least he did it okay, I adjusted my foot position and read his movements. His shoulders told on him, and I redirected punch with my palm, stepping a hair to the outside as he brought his back foot forward to add power to the punch. I loosely held his attacking wrist in place with my blocking arm, preventing a punch from his free hand, as I moved my leg around behind his. I punched him square in the chest in the same motion as I swept that leg from beneath him, sending him down towards the floor. Thankfully I got a firm hold of his wrist and guided him down so he wasn't hurt.

The coach was impressed, but didn't show it, "Okay, so you're not a white belt I'll give you that." He looked at my victim with disappointment in his eyes, "Umato, you okay?"

"Yes, sir." he whimpered, a bit emasculated.

The captain of the team was still giving me that glare, some part of me wanted him to step up. No, deep down I yearned for it. Something about him just made me want to tear him apart. He was power hungry and arrogant, greedy and self-righteous. He thought so completely that he was the greatest gift to humanity in history and that he deserved every bit of adoration he received. He was worse than that though. I could sense it so clearly it was tangible. Even Morooka, as angry had twisted as he was I could still tell there was some reason, some pain, that made him that way. That captain, whatever his name was, had no reason other than his own desire to be corrupt. He was evil, pure and unabashedly evil.

Chie looked back and forth at the two of us. It didn't take heightened empathy to sense the tense atmosphere between us. I imagine I was returning every bit a burning gaze as he was giving to me. I wasn't stupid though, I knew my limits. Within the confines of the rules I was in, with me limited to just sparring with karate and maybe some judo, there was probably no chance in hell I'd beat him. After all he was the captain of the whole team, a first rank black belt in the martial art after all.

After a few spars with different ranks my theory was proven, with just karate and limited to sparring rules, I was only a match for one of the seasoned green belts. I wasn't even brown belt quality under those conditions! If that guy had challenged me I would have been toast. In the end, before the meeting was dismissed the coach gave me a warm welcome and complimented me on being as skilled as I was when it was clear I had no formal training. I was tempted to make a smart ass remark about it, but decided not to. I decided to leave early instead of showering. With the animosity I was getting off of the team captain, lingering there would have been risky. I wasn't running, don't get the wrong idea. It's just that fighting in school and getting suspended was not my idea of good way to end the day. Hell, I couldn't afford to get suspended much if at all, so if I was going to be it had to be for good reason. Some asshole's territoriality wasn't high on that list.

That Akio guy was waiting for me outside, "Watch yourself. I'd reccomend you just quit before Tamura gets it in his head that he wants to break you."

"Did he do that to you?"

"That's none of your business. Just be careful okay? Tamura didn't get where he is by playing fair, but that just makes him all the more dangerous." With that he simply left, but I had the strange feeling that, for some reason, he was watching out for me. I felt that familiar sensation again as another link formed.

Chie xame out and saw Akio. She was about to say something but I stopped her, "Let's get of here."

"Something wrong? What did Akio-senpai have to say?"

"Nothing at all." I lied. There was no need to get her involved.

Next Chapter: Weakness

_More downtime for the team coming up as Bryan joins the drama club and tries to kill time in various ways._


	17. Chapter 16

_A/N: Today's theme song is "Change the World" by the legend of blues rock himself: Eric Clapton. The reason is that it pretty accurately paints Bryan's perspective on certain burdened people in the world as well (though he means it in a different way for Yukiko) Anyway, my connection is still iffy at best, and another factor in this chapter taking so much longer to get posted is that I had to rewrite it due to accidentally writing Yukiko as a bit too hyperactive in a scene. I was going for "I'm feeling really good" but ended up with "for some reason I'm acting like Rise". Also note that in this chapter Bryan joins the Drama Club, but I don't even include the actual joining and the first step of the social link. I originally intended to, but that joining part was more hindering to the chapter than fulfilling. Despite this, the drama club Sun Arcana holds a special place in my heart. In my first play through it was the first one I maxed and the end part was the only social link in P4 or P3 that actually tugged at my heart strings. Thus, I'm pondering creating another fic to do the Sun link in greater detail but set in the universe and time line of this fic. Either way, parts of the link that significantly impact the plot of this fic will be posted here has well. I've asked this before, but would you folks be interested in such a spin-off? Are there any other social links that you want a more detailed (of course modified) run through of?_

Chapter Sixteen: Weakness

I breathed heavily, slamming my back into the steel door to force it closed against the unending tide of monstrosities trying to gain access to the room. Yosuke and Chie were quick with moving a shelf against it to keep the creatures out and Yukiko, though bleeding profusely, was doing her best to tend the wound with one of many first aid kits that were sitting on a table in our newfound stronghold. I looked across the room at the only exit. There was bound to be more of the things on the other side, but at least the door was just as solid and barred closed. We could take a breather and recuperate. Once our pursuers gave up on beating the door down, we might even be able to discuss our plan for the road ahead or figure out what was going on.

Inaba had been overrun, not by shadows, but zombies of all things! Not the cute and cuddly rotting corpse "wait there while I shamble at you" kind either. It was the rabid "rawr I'm a _28 Days Later _ripoff" kind. Maybe they'd seen the crap sequel and decided to put on a more entertaining version without the annoying overly British zombie dad with GPS (seriously, how the hell was he so good at tracking them?), or maybe a new Dragon Warrior game was out. Whatever had caused it, Inaba, and presumably all of Japan if not the world, had become a crazed frothing horde of lunatics.

Yosuke sighed, rolling up the sleeves of his business attire, "Geez, that was a close one man. We almost didn't make it."

"I hate this!" grumbled an annoyed Chie, who for some reason was dressed like a biker, leather vest and all, "You okay, Yukiko?"

I just went over to a nearby table that held some ammunition and restocked, putting a full clip into my hunting rifle. I'd been surprised we'd found so much firepower in Inaba, considering Japan has stricter gun control laws than the United States, but who was I to complain?

Yukiko stood up and made sure her wounded leg could support her weight. I noted her strange attire, a white shirt covered by a red windbreaker with blue jeans and sneakers. It wasn't really something she'd wear casually, "I'm fine. We should hurry, if we don't get to the hospital soon we'll be left for dead."

Those three words, 'Left for dead', brought a clarity to my mind that jarred me awake. I groaned as I pulled myself from my futon. I was of course safe and sound in my room at the Amagi Inn, merely suffering the side effects of spending all of Sunday playing Left 4 Dead online. Though I should have been suspicious when I seemed to have and endless supply of ammo for pistols in my left pocket. Looking at the clock, my strange habit of waking up exactly five minutes before any alarm I set seemed as on schedule as usual. It was time to get ready for school and make Yukiko some breakfast.

Why make her breakfast you ask? I don't know really, but ever since the first time I made breakfast for the Amagi family I'd started to find it to be great stress relief. I'd developed a weird habit of cooking when something was bothering me, and since I hadn't gathered the guts to talk to Yukiko yet (she was in her room after all...I couldn't go in there) I still had a lot on my mind. My failure to prevent her kidnapping, the strange shadow version of Izanagi that had tried to seduce her into giving into her dark side (yes I'm tempted to make a Star Wars joke, but I won't), her not being able to see the strange veins in my skin, her appearance in the Velvet Room. Cooking was all I could do to vent the frustration of not knowing what was going on. It I just sat on it my mind would rip itself apart trying to deal with it. All this stuff happening at once would be enough to drive anyone to the edge of insanity.

I passed by front desk on my way to the kitchen only to be stopped by a voice, "Excuse me. Do you know if there is any room available?"

I turned, to the source of the voice, wondering why there was a new guest so early in the morning. It was then that I recognized her, the old lady from the station. The one I'd seen again on the bus over a week ago, she even still had the little boy with her, sinister grin as disturbing as ever on his otherwise neutral face, "Um...no I don't. Do I know you? You seem awfully familiar"

She bent over and the boy whispered in her ear, "He says we get around a lot. He likes to see interesting sights and he managed to find one."

"In Inaba? He must like nature."

Again she got her reply from the boy, but this time she looked at him with the first display of any emotion I'd seen her give. It was only slight, but the fact it was surprise was somewhat unsettling, "Really?" the boy nodded and she looked back to me, "It seems we will be coming back again later., since there's room. He says there's an end coming. Not today or tomorrow, but eventually. He does so love seeing what the survivors do afterwards, what world they build once the chaos is settled."

An end? My mind flashed to the nearing Death card in my fortune. To my recollection, there were around six cards left until it got there, but at the rate things had been going, it could come up in a month or two, "Who are you people? What do you know about that?"

But they were gone, vanished to nothing, oddly though, I felt their interest still hanging in the air. As the sensation passed, I somehow felt stronger...a social link....? …I really needed to cook breakfast....

_Yukiko's Perspective_

With a yawn, I crawled out of my futon and put Mr. Puffles on the shelf. It had been several days since the incident and my strength was finally coming back. I looked at the door to my room expectantly, and wondered if Bryan was cooking my breakfast again. I found it a bit strange that had not spoken a word to each other since the Velvet Room, but I told myself that it was only because I'd been resting in my room since then. He probably just didn't want to invade my personal space, though he still could have brought the meal himself. I didn't understand it, but with my strength at a high enough level that day, I intended to end the separation. Even with Miku-san's visits and Chie stopping by the day before, the silence was killing me. It was still early, so maybe I could head him off.

I moved quietly down the stairs and into the kitchen, and waited there at the kitchen table for him. Sure enough, he came in a few minutes later, dressed for school. I gave him a grin, "Hello, going to make my breakfast again?"

He looked surprised for an instant, and in that instant that I was fixation on his expression I didn't notice him pull out his cellphone and snap a picture of me.

When I realized it was already too late, "What? Why did you do that? I look terrible!" For some reason I started fixing my hair, even though the picture was already over.

"I had to take a commemorative photo of your first step." he replied, with than rare grin and those intense gray-blue eyes. For some reason I felt special, like that was an expression reserved for me. It was true that he didn't smile to often, usually only when he was teasing people.

"First step?" I asked, uncertain of what he meant.

He put the phone away and grabbed an apron, "Yep. You came downstairs , apparently to talk to me, without even combing your hair or changing out of your pajamas. I'd say that's a big first step to opening up to me."

I realized he was stating facts and blushed. He was right. I was still in the kimonos used for sleeping in, since I'd grown used to it over the days, and in my haste to beat him to the kitchen I hadn't even thought to comb my hair or anything. Clearly I'd grown very comfortable with him despite not seeing him lately.

I realized there had been an awkward silence when he broke it, "I heard they were posting notices for part-time jobs on the notice board in town. Want to go check it out after you get your strength back?" he had already prepared a skillet and started cracking open some eggs.

"Part-time jobs?"

He turned around to face me, "Yeah. Don't job licenses cost money?"

"Oh! Yes, they do. Good thinking." then it occurred to me, I had mentioned getting job licenses in that place, that Velvet Room, "So that was real...I wasn't imagining it."

He smiled and went back to the task at hand, "Nope, though I wonder what significance those changes have. I've been a guest there almost since I got here. Before you came there was no pianist and no music playing."

Despite the fact he couldn't see the gesture, I shrugged, "I don't know. I'm still perplexed about the place itself. The others don't know about it?"

"No, for some reason we're the only guests."

I stopped and thought about it a moment. Bryan didn't even know what promise he'd made that his future hinged on, but I'd promised him that I would open up more to others and get over the belief that I had to do everything myself. Maybe, just maybe, the act had somehow linked us in some way, "Maybe we're supposed to help each other. It can't be coincidence. Maybe you're the only one that can help me open up."

He turned again, "And maybe whatever I promised has something you can help me with?"

"Maybe."

He smiled again. "Well, I suppose I could be stuck with worse help."

"Me too." I paused a moment in my thoughts and then laughed, "It's kind of funny, when you first got here I have to admit to being a little afraid of you."

He turned back to the eggs swiftly, but I caught a glimpse of a frown, "It's okay, I'm used to it."

That statement was a bit confusing, but I didn't miss the slight hint of pain in his words, "I'm sorry, I'm over it now. I wasn't all that scared really. It was more intimidated than actual fear."

"Yeah I know." he'd shut himself off. For some reason I could almost feel a small section of himself closing itself behind s metaphorical wall. He changed the subject, "So about those part-time jobs...?"

"Oh, yeah I'll come with you. I should be able to come back to school tomorrow."

"Great, we can talk about the case, get you some glasses so you can see through the fog in that place, and after all is said and done we can see about your future."

"Sounds good." I said. M stomach suddenly growled at the smell of he omelet getting done, "That smells good too."

"Ha-ha-ha!" He laughed and moments later he had plopped down a simple omelet on the table in front of me, "Sorry, I can't really do many breakfast foods."

"It's okay, I like eggs."

He grabbed his bag with a smile. Despite his hesitance to take about that pain inside, our shared goals made me feel that much closer to him. That smile and the growing of our bond sent a warm sensation flowing through me and I was glad he turned to leave before I blushed. He bid me a goodbye and departed for school. I was left alone, all save my omelet...and Miku-san, who I noticed out of the corner of my eye.

"How long have you been there?" I panicked, if she'd heard...

She was smiling big, "Not long, just long enough to see you getting fed you're breakfast."

I fidgeted, "He didn't feed me, he just...you know...made it for me."

She laughed.

_Bryan's Perspective_

"So I was thinking about doing a little raining during lunch break, since they gave us a full 45 minutes that's more than enough time to get in a quick twenty minute workout and eat something after." I was talking to Chie during the last few moments of math class as I tried to drive the disturbing face of that teacher from my mind.

She nodded, "Yeah, I guess we could do that once in a while, but I hate working out on a an empty stomach and you've told us before that it's bad to eat right before."

I shook my head, "That's not entirely true. You just have to stick to light and fast digesting carbs."

Chie was confused, "Wait...aren't carbs bad for you?"

My hand went to my face int what is known on the Internet as a facepalm, "No, of course not. If they were then Japan and China would be the fat countries instead of the United States. You just have to eat the right carbs and stay away from from the bad carbs in some sweet foods."

"You sure know a lot of stuff."

"I told you I read a lot. Now are you in? I brought a good lunch for a workout, both a pre-workout and post workout portion."

Chie nodded, "Fine, I'm in, but you have to let me have a crack at that book. Ha-ha."

Suddenly I noticed Sayuri, the girl who was always at the front of the class and had taken a liking to me, had come up with a bento, "Oh, you made lunch for you..." she swallowed hard, "...and Chie-chan."

Had I hurt her feelings. "Oh, yeah, I kinda made lunch on an impulse, sorry. You want to join us?"

"Yeah, you look ready to train." Chie was actually trying to be nice, but mentioning the girls odd way of dressing might have been a bad move.

Sayuri looked at her feet, and slammed the bento down on my desk, shouting "NO! I don't want to come!" before running off.

Chie scratched her head, "What was that about?"

I honestly didn't know, Sayuri was clearly sadder than she was mad, but I couldn't tell why. She was sending so many different signals I couldn't read any of them, "I have no idea...maybe she really does have a thing for me like you said?"

I couldn't help but think of people on anime message boards making snide remarks about a nice boat. The thought of that happening in this case was ridiculous, after all I had no feelings for either girl, but still. I didn't like sailing, especially not like that (ask around if you don't get it). But me being an otaku aside, the bell to go to lunch rang, so I stood up, put Sayuri's offered bento in my desk and walked with Chie to the roof.

We ate the pre-workout portion of the meal and did some light cardio to warm up before going into something Chie called frog leaps. She seemed to be having a good time, and she confirmed it when we sat down to have the rest of the meal, "Man that's good stuff. Thanks for lunch and for training with me. Even though we saved Yukiko and we got that stuff off our shoulders I still feel bad. I think I need to try harder. If I want to protect Yukiko, I need to be stronger than I am."

"Well, knowing is half the battle." I was trying to encourage her, but had ended up quoting G.I. Joe. Damn I'm a nerd.

Chie thankfully wasn't one and thus didn't notice, "Yeah. You wanna train some more after school?"

"No, sorry. The cultural clubs are accepting members today and I wanted to join the drama club. I was part of the one back home."

"Yeah, I remember you saying something about that. Good luck. Maybe if they get enough members they can perform some more."

"Maybe." time seemed to have passed very quickly, as the bell to return to class rang, "Oh, by the way Yukiko's coming back tomorrow, if you see Yosuke before I do, can you tell him? We'll meet up at the food court in Junes to talk about the case after school tomorrow."

"Right."

* * *

Elsewhere, in a place somewhere between mind and matter, that is neither dream nor reality, a man in a well pressed suit pours himself drink and walks over to the table of cards. Another card, predicting the future of his guest had flipped over. Sure enough, change had come, but whether or not his two guests could handle their new way of thinking was yet to be seen. The next card was troubling indeed and made the prospect seem bleaker. The Emperor, in the spread before him it meant an obstacle in their path, something that could set them back, destroy them, or make them stronger.

He smiled. How would they react? It would be a sight to behold surely.

* * *

_Naoto's Perspective_

Dear Naoto-chan,

I'm sorry it has taken so long for me to get a reply to you, but it's been a bit crazy around the inn lately. The very day I arrived an announcer that was hiding out there vanished and later turned up dead. The police suspected me for obvious reasons. The situation only got worse when a person from the school I now attention was murdered (she supposedly found the announcer's body), and not long after the daughter of the family I'm staying with went missing too. My friends and I found her though and she was fine. I'm glad there was a reasonable fellow in charge of investigating the cases, otherwise I'd probably be in jail for something I didn't even do. If you're working in the area you should look him up. Detective Dojima was his name and he seems good to work with.

On the subject of your questions, I have made a few friends that I talk too a bit. Yosuke, Chie, and that daughter I mentioned, Yukiko Amagi. Yukiko troubles me a bit, as she's the type that tries to do everything herself so she doesn't trouble anyone. She promised me that she would open up more, but only time will tell. I'd hate to think she was tearing herself apart inside when there was something I could do to help. To tell you the truth Naoto-chan, there's something else bothering me...there's just something that keeps pulling my attention back to Yukiko. Maybe it's her desire to change, her determination, or that optimistic hope she has...but...I don't know...I have this strong desire to help her, even more so than usual, and some part of me wants to...never mind. I know you're not the most skilled in social stuff, but still, I needed to get that off my chest.

And you shouldn't worry about not being good at asking about me. If you have any questions about my life in Inaba, I'll be happy to tell you anything. You'll get better at it, as you've admitted you aren't good at it, and that's the first step to gaining the social skills of a true prince. If you need to get anything off your chest, you can count on me. We're friends after all.

Sincerely,

Bryan Neir

I set the letter down, the finer points not lost on me. He referenced working with a policeman, and a prince. It was clear that he had somehow deduced that I was concealing my gender from the public and was in fact a teen detective. Considering I had not been in the public eye of late left me wondering how he had done it. Did he mention me in casual conversation? Did something in my letters give me away? Bryan was in the country, and knew my shame. Normally I wouldn't have cared so much about it, he wasn't the kind of guy that would tell anyone, but a certain case file that also shared space on my desk made things more complicated.

The police chief of a certain small town needed help with a certain case that they had no leads on. With my grandfather getting prepared for business overseas, only I was there to take the case. By the end of the week I would be in Inaba.

Next Chapter: Investigation Team! ASSEMBLE!

_Next up, Yukiko joins the team officially! What will happen when Naoto arrives? Is she the obstacle? Who is the old lady and the young boy she tends to? What do they want? How do they know about Bryan's power and his future? What is the ending they spoke of?_


	18. Chapter 17

_A/N: Today's theme song shows more of my love of old music and adds yet more diversity to the 'soundtrack'. NOBODY EXPECTED '80s NEW WAVE DANCE MUSIC! "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive. For forewarned, the music video for that song may cause temporary blindness, or at least the desire to be temporarily blind. While the song is actually about picking up a girl at a disco (apparently while sporting the most ludicrous hair and clothes imaginable), in this new context it fits the events in this chapter around when Yukiko gets her glasses. You may also note a little recycled content from the original version of this fic, modified for continuity and in one case from a different perspective. This is next to last, maybe the last, time this will be done in a chapter. And I know at least one of you were expecting Naoto's arrival in this chapter, but I never said it would happen this chapter, there is too much going on in this chapter to include the meeting. For one it would require another time skip to after exams, and there are enough of those in this chapter already. NEXT chapter is the arrival of Naoto._

Chapter Seventeen: Investigation Team! ASSEMBLE!

We met at Junes like I arranged earlier, taking the large table that Yosuke and I had met over a week before. I treated everyone and then opened up the floor for discussion. Yukiko and I had decided not to tell anyone about the Velvet Room for the time being, so we could focus on the murder, rather than an apparent mysterious ally.

Yukiko came right out and said her piece, "I'm sorry guys, I thought if I just let my head clear and let it sit, I might remember what happened, but if anything it's fuzzier now. I can only remember going to take a break, then a doorbell, someone called my name...and then I woke up in that place." she looked disappointed, as if she'd failed somehow, "And with all the chaos after that, everything is even more jumbled."

"No need to feel sorry," Chie tried to cheer her up, then tackled the issue, "Does this mean her guest was the murderer?"

"That's one bold murderer." Yosuke said, wracking his brain, "Walking right up and ringing the doorbell. You'd think there'd be witnesses but-"

I shook my head, "If that was the case the cops would never have questioned me or believed our story. Who could blend in so well that he could kidnap a girl in broad daylight and not be seen?"

Everyone mulled over that, but we came up empty.

Frustrated, Yosuke moved on, "Well, at least we should be able to tell when he's going to strike again. For now all we can do is wait for someone to appear on the Midnight Channel and try and stop him then." He looked at the girls, "Oh, I haven't told you yet. Me and Bryan are going to catch this guy ourselves. Against the two of us he stands no chance!"

I was going to say something, but Chie raised her hand, "I'm helping too! Anybody who would throw people into that place trying to kill them deserves a good kicking!"

Yukiko smiled, "If it's alright with everyone I'd like to come along." Yosuke and Chie were surprised, "I need to know why someone would do this kinda of thing, and why he would go after me. Who could hate me enough to try and kill me?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, you're welcome to help."

The others happily agreed.

I scratched my beard in thought, "Now since it's relevant, who the hell was that guy trying to get Yukiko to give in to her weakness? He seemed to have an inverted form of my powers."

Chie frowned, "I dunno, we have even less to go on there. To be honest I thought he might be your shadow, but he didn't look like you, and Teddie said he was linked to the castle somehow, and my shadow wasn't."

"When we confronted Yukiko's shadow I thought he would turn out to be the killer, but he's something else. Plus the fact he said he'd go after the next victim like he did with Yukiko means he wasn't just a part of that castle...I don't know, there's too much we still don't know. What do you think Yukiko?"

She frowned, "All I know is we should try our best to keep the next victim away from him. I get the feeling there will be another, so we need to figure out who it could be."

"What common element due all the victims have?" I wondered aloud.

Yosuke replied almost instantly, "They were all females, and each had something to do with the first victim. Saki-senpai found the body, and she was staying at the Amagi Inn."

"Seems a bit of a stretch, the female thing is probably just a coincidence. Then again, if anything, I fit the bill for being connected to the announcer more than Yukiko."

The girls were confused so I enlightened them, "I've been on this case a while, the night the fog cleared and the announcer was due to die I happened to figure out I could go into TVs. By sheer chance I found the TV she was thrown in and tried to save her."

Yukiko seemed sorry for me, "You were there when she was killed? I'm so sorry. I can't imagine seeing that kind of thing and not being able to stop it."

But something had occurred to me and dominated my thoughts, "Come to think of it, the TV she was thrown in was in the lounge _inside_ the Amagi Inn."

At the thought, Yukiko seemed profoundly disturbed, "Someone killed right inside the inn, and I didn't even know it. Wait...does this mean the killer is one of our staff?"

"Could be," Yosuke thought about it a second, "Then again, how would anyone on your staff have access to Saki-senpai?"

Yukiko seemed very rattled, "The inn was buying from the Konishi family until just recently."

A breakthrough? I asked the key question, "Who usually does the buying?"

"It can't be anyone working there..." she was so taken aback, "We're like family to our staff. They wouldn't do this kind of thing...why would they?"

I was going to close the matter for the time being but Yosuke pushed, "Didn't that announcer lady make your mom collapse from stress? If they loved your mother like-"

"Yosuke, drop it." I interrupted, "We have nothing solid. After all, what motive would the staff have to attack Yukiko? I've been around a lot of the staff and none of them seemed the type to kill anyone. Maybe the first time, thinking that it was just making the person go away. Maybe even the second timeout of fear, but with it clear now that doing that kills people, they'd have no motive for this time."

I couldn't help but think back to many days before, just a short time after my arrival, when an employee, Mai I think was her name, accidentally came close to making Yukiko fall down the stairs. Had it really been an accident? To be honest I didn't know the girl that well, and had only talking to her once or twice. She didn't seem to have anything against the Amagi family, but there was really no telling for sure.

Chie sighed, "So in short, we have a lot of questions, a few theories, and no answers."

"Exactly." I nodded.

Yukiko shook the disturbing thoughts from her head and tried to be optimistic, "Well we can save people right? It should be even easier with four people on the case. We can just find out the next victim beforehand and stop them beforehand."

Yosuke got a determined look, "Right! With the Inaba Investigation Team on the case there's no way the killer can escape for long."

"Oh that reminds me," Chie noted, "We've got to go get Yukiko some glasses so she can see in there."

Yosuke, "Right, let's see if Teddie has any more."

There was no one in the electronics department as usual, so we were able to simply stride into the other world. Teddie was waiting off in a corner of the main area and came over when he saw us, "Oh, Yuki-chan, I kept my promise! I've been a good bear."

Yukiko wasn't sure how to react to him being so happy to see her, "O-oh...well, good boy."

"I even made you a present: your own pair of glasses! One for Chie-san too!"

Chie was surprised, "Oh I already have a pair remember? The ones Bryan didn't need."

"Well these are your very own!"

Chie seemed grateful and it occurred to me that her head was smaller than mine. Those glasses he'd been using were probably constantly falling off. Yukiko seemed confused about something, looking at the area with and without the glasses. She stopped and looked at the bear with a smile, "Thanks, Teddie, these are great. Oh, but you don't need a pair?"

Teddie was about to say something, but I beat him to it, "He lives in here, I'm sure he has natural adaptations for that kinda thing. His eyes probably don't see the fog." The got me wondering what had happened to make me the same.

Yosuke had caught something Teddie had said, "You said you make those glasses?"

Teddie nodded, "Yep. I'm really good with my hands, See I'm very dexterous!"

Teddy walked towards Yosuke while wiggling his fingers, only to be reflexively shoved away (though Teddie went down, the shove had been hard enough to make him bounce back up), "Don't do that! It's creepy!"

Yukiko spotted a pair of glasses on the floor, "Hm? What's this?"

Teddie fidgeted, "Oh those are a pair I messed up."

"Oooo! I wanna wear these! They even have a nose guard!" she put them on...it was a pair of gag glasses with a fake noes and curly mustache, "So how do I look?"

I was too busy trying not to laugh to reply, Chie got an look on her face that was halfway between a sigh and 'what the hell?', "Umm...Yukiko?"

Yukiko was having too much fun to listen, she took them off and held them out to Chie, "Here! Your turn Chie! Try them on!"

"What?" Chie didn't want to, but the darlingly amused face Yukiko had on was not something a normal human could resist, "Oh fine."

Chie put on the gag glasses and had an expression that said, 'I can't believe I'm doing this.'

Yukiko was beside herself, her laughter breaking through thin resistance with a snort and she held her side as she was overcome by hysterical laughter. It was cute, and nearly as goofy as Chie in the glasses. I probably would have been laughing too, but something odd was coming over me as I looked at Yukiko in her laughing fit, an almost animalistic compulsion.

Chie explained Yukiko's state to the confused of us, "Oh there goes one of Yukiko's laughing fits, I never thought she'd do it in front of anyone but me though." She threw down the glasses, "These glasses are useless for-" she noticed me, I was twitching a little, with what I imagine was quite a strange look on my face, "Hey, Bryan, what's wrong?"

I sprang into action suddenly, no longer able to resist, reaching Yukiko in the blink of an eye and tickling her sides like some child on a playground, "Tickle attack!"

Yukiko was shocked but was helpless to fight back, "What? HA! HA! HA! STOP! HA! HA! HA! HA! Why- HA-HA-HA!" she fell limp but I caught her in my arms and kept tickling.

Chie sighed, "Well, I see we're not getting any searching done today."

Yosuke was too stunned to do anything but nod in agreement.

_Yukiko's Perspective_

"Hmmm, look here, somebody needs a babysitter part-time. Someone named Dojima." we'd gone to look at the part-time jobs like we'd arranged, even though I was a bit tired from the laughing fit...and the tickling. Him doing that had surprised me, but at least we were having fun together.

"Dojima? You mean the detective?"

"I guess, If he has a daughter I imagine his job could get in the way a lot."

"so are you going for that one?"

"Yeah, I like kids. I'll give them a call and see if I can start right after exams." I wrote down the number and turned to Bryan, "While we're on the subject, are you ready for the exams? We can study together if you need some help with anything, and I could use some help in a couple subjects."

"Sounds good, hopefully no incidents will happen and we'll have caught that Yamizanagi guy by then. I'd rather not have any loose ends hanging over my head when exams hit."

"True. I can understand that." I looked at my feet thinking hard about that time I had appeared in the Velvet Room.

"Something wrong?"

"No, nothing. It just...I'm glad....I'm glad that when I appeared in that strange room I had someone with me. I'm glad that I wasn't alone in being able to see in that world without the glasses. If I was the only one...that's too lonely to even think about. I tried to do everything by myself before, and I never want to be that lonely again."

Bryan looked as if he were about to reach out to me, but decided against it, "I know what you mean."

"You were going through this before me, all by yourself. You even have something else you're going through alone. You're different than everyone else, and I can understand how that can feel, at least a little bit." She looked at me with a smile, "But you're not alone. I hope someday you can feel comfortable enough to confide in me."

Bryan suddenly looked smaller, with a pained expression on his face that displayed a hint of the hurt I had seen in his eyes before, but he kept quiet. Despite this, I could feel a surge of power from our bond. We had grown closer, albeit only slightly, but closer none the less. I wanted to find out want that pain was and help him heal inside. It was a desire that would prove crucial in the future.

He forced a smile, "Thanks." He went back to looking at the board to avoid the topic and wrote down some numbers.

"You're looking for work too?"

He nodded, "Yep, I think I'll take on this janitor job at the hospital, it's at night and only a few days a week, so it shouldn't impeded me too much. It seems to pay well too."

"But you already have a part-time job at the inn."

"So do you, and you get paid allowance. It's not enough, which is the same reason I'm taking another job too."

"What are you saving up for?"

Bryan wrote down another number, "Oh look, we can do this one discreetly, making envelopes. Doesn't pay a lot but you can do it any time and almost anywhere."

He'd avoided my questions again, but whatever, it wasn't important this time, "Sounds good."

We called in about the jobs and managed to get them fairly easily. Detective Dojima already knew me from the questioning periods and fortunately felt comfortable enough leaving his daughter with me. Apparently the lie about me getting lost after taking a walk to escape my troubles hadn't affected his opinion of me. Maybe he thought I'd learned my lesson. I had, but in a different way than he knew. Bryan and I had planned to visit the Velvet Room, but by the time we got done talking to our future employers it was getting dark. I went home and had a long soak while thinking about how I'd be earning my own money soon after the exams, and what I could do to get Bryan to open up. Maybe we could all go somewhere during Golden Week?

_Bryan's Perspective_

We spent the next several days trying to find that Yamizanagi guy again, to no avail, it was like he had vanished completely. Everyone was getting tired so we took a day off. That day, I coasted through my classes as usual and went over some material from another class I didn't already have down. Math had never been my strong suit and it was the only subject I couldn't just breeze through using my limited eidetic memory. Sure I can recall almost anything I hear or read; but numbers (aside from dates) fall into the 'almost' category rather than the 'anything'. They always have and probably always will. I had a hard time focusing on it though. Normally I'm good will multi-tasking, but that day my thoughts were on recent events. The Midnight Channel had through a foggy night without incident thanks to the rescue, proving we could actually save the victims. Yukiko had her first few trips into the TV world since we saved her. Despite these things, I was still concerned. After all, we still hadn't figured out who that strange figure was. Even though Teddie claimed it felt linked to the place, Yamizanagi had said he would try to get the next victim too. Who or what was he and what were his motives? Plus more shadows had moved into the castle that were totally unconnected to the place, so the going wasn't be smooth. Probably a good thing though. With the place still unresolved, we had a place to train for the next rescue attempt.

I sighed. Then there was exams. Hopefully the weather would hold up. We'd been getting as much training as possible in, but we'd all decided to relax and study during the week of exams. A whole week in which the culprit, and Yamizanagi, could be getting stronger! It annoyed me, got on my nerves and generally ticked me off. That day I had karate practice, but it would be the last time until after exams. I'd just be sitting on my rear or working at the inn. I mean I could train by myself, but...

"Mr. Neir, did you forget you were in the middle of class?"

I snapped out of my thoughts to discover I had gotten out of my seat and apparently started pacing up and down the aisle,. The entire class started laughing hysterically, for a moment there I thought Yukiko was going to die from it. Dang, she was so cute when she laughed! I just wanted to run of to her and tickle her again. Fortunately, I had already been reminded once that I was in the middle of class. Though the fact she couldn't stop for several moments after everyone else made it all the more adorable.

"Sorry, sensei, I guess I was thinking too hard." I returned to my seat and put my head in my hands.

Not long after, the bell rang for lunch and I pondered, thinking about the two lunches I had stored in my bag. I'd made two, thinking that Yukiko had been eating too many instant ramen bowls over the past few days, but I suddenly felt unsure. I had originally intended it to be a completely platonic thing, but in anime, that kind of thing usually carried implications. Those were implications I didn't want to convey. I wasn't at all sure what to do. Come to think of it, Sayuri hadn't talked to me since that misunderstanding with Chie.

Yosuke joked at me, "Dude, now class is over and you stay seated? You sure are thinking hard today."

I got the urge to snap at him but instead just stood up and ignored him, grabbing my bag and looking to Yukiko, "Yuki-senpai, Chie-senpai, would you like some boxed lunches? I made some after noticing the two of you have been eating nothing but instant ramen lately. I thought you'd like a change."

Chie smiled, "That's really nice of you."

Yosuke was shocked, "Dude, you can cook?"

Yukiko smiled, "Oh yes, he's been doing a lot of cooking lately, my parents are thinking of putting him in charge of staff meals." She grabbed one of the offered boxes, "I wish I could pick up things as easy as him."

I shrugged and grinned a little at the compliment, "It's not that hard, you just have to follow the recipe. Plus, my mother was a professional cook for twenty years before she retired."

Yosuke seemed interested, "Retired? You're only seventeen, how could your mother be that old?"

"She had me at a pretty late age, plus she had to raise two kids by herself for a long time so..." I paused, "Let's not bring down the mood with that kinda talk! I'm going to go grab drinks. You guys want anything?"

The group put in their requests, except Yukiko, who started getting up, "I'll help."

She was concerned about me, she was going to try and pry, I could tell, "No, don't bother, I've got large hands I can carry this many easily."

"You might drop one, come on." Yukiko asserted.

I had no choice, we walked out of the classroom, leaving a slightly perplexed Yosuke and Chie in the class. When we got to the machine down the hall, I looked at my options. Japan, as usual, had some pretty strange options. I mean melon flavor? Canned jelly? Who the heck drinks jelly? I went ahead and grabbed a melon soda to give it a shot and purchased the other drinks. Yukiko hadn't said anything yet, but that soon changed.

"We both promised to open up more."

I felt like I deflated a little, "Sorry, old habits die hard."

"I'd like to think you could at least trust me. You've mentioned you don't get along with your parents before."

Thinking about it...I didn't want to think about it, "It's not that I don't trust you...I'd just rather not think about it."

"Talking about it would-"

"You know what Yukiko? Just..." suppress, suppress, don't yell at her, "...drop it please."

She noted the pained expression on my face and the shift in tone, "Okay, if you're that bothered I'll let it go for now."

We were quiet the rest of the way back and Yukiko tried not to look depressed, but I could tell my actions had brought her down. I handed out the drinks and tried to change the subject, "So we should probably take Yukiko to the metalsmith and see what we can get for her to use. She can't keep using a cardigan for armor."

"Yeah, and a fan isn't exactly a great weapon," Chie nodded, "You know, come to think of it Bryan, you said one of your hobbies was studying martial arts, what would you recommend? I only know kung-fu movie stuff."

"Oh, I'm not really an expert, but in a fight it's best to go with what you're comfortable with, no matter how weird it might seem. Some styles do use fans for weapons, based on the idea of self-defense with the most common things at the time. Yukiko's probably already mastered graceful movement with it so..."

Yosuke was still skeptical, "But still, fighting with a fan?"

"Hey, like I said, some fans are designed specifically for it." I looked to Yukiko, "I could try and teach you a few things if you like."

"You never offered to train me." Yosuke pouted a little, "What's your belt rank in that karate club anyway?"

"I have a black belt in the ancient art of 'who gives a crap about belts'."

"And mental kung-fu" Chie chimed in with a smile.

"Okay, after club when we get done at Daidara's I'll share my knowledge. Sound good?" everyone nodded, "Good, now let's eat."

Yukiko and Chie opened their bentos and Yosuke dug into some instant ramen. Chie was pleasantly surprised, "Oh, curry rice with beef!"

I headed Yukiko off before she said anything, "I made your's special Yukiko, it has beef, but I used a different rice and added some veggies that help the body process the meat. You should try my sweet potato rice sometime, thats good stuff. Olympians eat it to help burn sugar and bad fats."

"You sure know a lot about it." Yukiko noted.

"Limited eidetic memory remember? Plus I used to read pretty much all the time. You pick up a lot that way."

Yosuke scratched his head, having noted something, "Hey, why didn't you bring more than two?"

Chie got that mischievous look, "Yeah, Bryan, did you forget to make one for yourself and Yosuke? Or did you plan on only giving one to Yukiko and got shy about it?"

I swallowed hard, having failed to think of that when I chickened out, "I just forgot. No big deal. You guys brought ramen bowls right? We can just have one of those, I really like them anyway."

Yukiko hadn't caught on to what Chie was getting at, and simply handed me the bowl she had brought, "Here you go, Bryan-san."

"Thanks."

After classes, I headed for karate club despite Akio's earlier advice. I went in expecting to be jumped afterward, so I wouldn't be using the shower at the school and would take a route to the shopping district with a lot of people. I should have thought something strange was up when Tamura, the current team captain, was smiling maliciously at me. Sure enough, it turned out that the attack I was expecting would come at the most unexpected time.

I was sparring with a green belt when suddenly he stepped on my foot. Like a rookie I let the surprise of the act distract me and he sent me toward the mat with a blow to the center of my chest. I instinctively grabbed his gi and pulled him with me, which probably saved my ankle from being seriously injured.

The coach hadn't seen the foot on mine, so he yelled at me,"What the hell are you thinking Kneer? You pulling your sparring partner down like that is dangerous!"

I got to my feet pretty quickly, "He had his foot on mine! If I didn't pull him I wouldn't be standing right now!"

The coach, of course, didn't believe me, "Are you saying one of my boys tried to injure you on purpose? Give me a break! We're a team, Kneer! Why would he do that?"

"Fine!" I said, trying to keep my cool, I wasn't shouting, "Don't believe me then. Keep an eye out though, there's already been one injury on this team under questionable circumstances right? Or did you forget about Akio-senpai?" It was pretty clear what had happened to Akio after that crap.

The coach was pissed, "That's it Kneer! Hit the showers! Maybe you'll cool off in there."

I was tempted to quit right there, but that was what Tamura wanted. This was his world, and he didn't want me in it. Instead I glared at the corrupt captain and headed for the door, "I'll shower at home. See you next week."

I walked most of the way down the hall and lost it, slamming both my hands against the lockers in frustration. It was starting. It was a new form of it, but not all that dissimilar from the many times someone who wanted to think they were stronger than me tried to prove they were. I'd come to Japan to get away from that and start over. It seemed that was impossible, that there was no escape. I punched a locker door in frustration, then hit it again and again, over and over until I thought it might buckle under the assault. I looked at my hand...my knuckles were bleeding.

Suddenly I heard Akio's voice and turned to see the man standing not far away, "You look pissed, let me guess: he tried to take you out." I nodded, "Feel better now?

"A bit."

"I told you that is was best to quit."

I shook my head, giving him almost as hard a glare as I'd given Tamura, "I don't take advice from cowards."

That pushed his button, "What did you just call me?"

"I called you a coward. What other word fits a guy that lets his club get taken over by that kinda punk? He doesn't deserve to wear that black belt. This isn't what karate clubs are supposed to be about!"

"What do you expect me to do? My knee is useless! I can barely take a stance anymore! How could I take him out like this?"

I looked at him with every ounce of seriousness I had, "Train me. Beating him in a street fight is pointless. I have to beat him in that forum, the _right_ and way with pure and clean karate, but I can't win under competition rules right now. You can help me, I know it."

Akio was shocked for only an instant, then he smiled.

Next Chapter: Incidents

_In case you were looking forward to it, I just figured out that if things keep at this pace we'll get to the school camp out in about 7 chapters. Also, by my estimation, this story will be around 40-50 chapters in length, with the highly anticipated appearance of Bryan's dungeon coming somewhere in the thirties. Both events are far away, but you'll enjoy the chapters in between if you've liked the ones so far. And as a tease: Remember that Death card ahead in Bryan's fortune? You can count the number of cards until then on one hand._


	19. The Accident

_A/N: Yeah...don't blame me for this...this is what happens when I just go with what pops in my head. This isn't actually in story continuity and doesn't really work with my plans at all, but it just kinda...you know...happened. I was writing a normal chapter and then suddenly THIS spilled out of me of its own accord. I blame sleep-deprivation. Regardless, I haven't updated in a while for various reasons, so I thought I'd post this crudely written and weird accident. It didn't feel right just going to work on other stuff and taking a breather from this story without letting you guys now. I actually kinda like this little accident as an alternate event one-shot kinda thing. Let me reiterate: THIS DOESN'T REALLY HAPPEN AT THIS POINT IN THE STORY! THIS IS JUST A ONE-SHOT I WROTE ACCIDENTALLY. There will be a real new chapter as soon as I can manage to write it. I'm having trouble with transition between the exam week and the introduction of Kanji, I don't know why really, I just can't seem to make anything work! I'm going to be taking a break from this story to maintain some measure of quality, but I'll get back on it once I'm able._

Interlude: Acceleration

"Oh Yukiko-san, going for a swim?" Miku-san asked with a motherly smile on her face.

I had run into her on my way to the inn's hot springs where I fully intended to relax after the long week of exams. Ever since I was a child I would sneak into the springs in the dead of night when no one ever entered and just swim. After all, the hot springs were so big it was like having a heated pool.

I returned the smile and nodded, "Yep. It's been a hard week."

"How did you two do on the mid-terms?"

I looked down at my feet with a frown, "Well, I know I did well, I studied enough after all. I haven't actually talked to Bryan much lately."

She seemed surprised, "Really? You two seemed to be getting along so well."

"Yeah, I know. I think I might have touched a nerve by trying to get him to talk about his family. He's been spending an awful lot of time with Chie, but she doesn't say anything about it."

Miku-san got a coy look on her face, "Jealous?"

"No!" I replied more forcefully and suddenly than I intended, which only got her smiling wider, "It's really not like that! I just wonder if I crossed a line I shouldn't have or something."

She shrugged, "Give it time. Men have short memories."

I laughed, "Thanks, Miku-san."

She went about her rounds as I stepped into the changing room of the springs and got undressed, changing into a towel before stepping into the springs themselves. I walked around the edge once to make sure nobody was inside, then slipped into the water. It was invigorating. I took a deep breath in and crouched so that my head went beneath the surface of the water, the warm wetness drenching my hair as the strands floated in all directions. I surfaced just long enough to get more air and then started on my first lap.

_Bryan's Perspective_

I ran into Miku-san as I finished my day of work at the inn. She was apparently making her rounds and greeted me with a smile rimmed with amused annoyance, "You do know the Japanese for 'day-off' right?"

"Yeah, of course. Just call me a workaholic."

"Saving your money for something?"

I nodded, "Yeah, raining day fund I guess. Never hurts to be ready."

She frowned at me, rightly not believing I was being totally open with her, "Well, that's your business, but try not to work so hard."

"I keep hearing that you know."

"Maybe you work too hard?'

I laughed, "Maybe."

I was about to leave but then she stopped me, "By the way, have you been avoiding Yukiko-san? She says she hasn't seen you all week."

"That's odd." I said, thinking it over, "I kept meaning to ask her to study with me and Chie, but she was never around."

The lady seemed to find the situation assuming to no end, "You mean you both thought you were being avoided? Ha-ha-ha! The irony of it! To think Yukiko thought she'd offended you by talking about your parents!"

The realization hit me. That actually had been the last thing we really talked about, "I guess I should talk to her tomorrow, right now I just want to relax. It's been a long week."

Miku-san smiled, though if I hadn't been so tired I might have noticed it was really a sly grin, "Then you should try the hot springs, I think you'll enjoy them."

Not knowing the evil plot the she had in mind, I nodded, "I guess I will, there probably wouldn't be anyone in there at this time of night."

I wandered for a little bit, having forgotten where they were, but it didn't really take me all that long to find the door leading in. I opened the door and stripped down, wrapping the standard towel around my waist before going in. As I neared the water though I heard something that sounded distinctly like splashing.

Moments later, "Yu-Yukiko-chan?!?"

She stopped swimming and spotted me, ducking so that most of her body would be under the water, "Bry-kun?!? What are you doing in here?!?"

I turned around, "I'm so sorry! Miku-san told me...."

"Just get out!"

"It's not my fault I swear!" I was too embarrassed to think straight, something all too clear, and made clearer moments later.

Yukiko's Perspective

I was about to scream at him again when I actually looked at him. It was then that I saw his back. His back that was covered in several short but deep scars, as if he'd bee stabbed a half-dozen times in the back. I was so shocked at the sight that I forgot entirely about the situation. Where had those scars come from? Had he really been stabbed? Who would want to hurt someone like Bry-kun?

"Bry-kun..."

He was still flustered, "Yes..I know! Sorry, I'm leaving! But I wasn't trying to peep I swear!"

"No, I mean...those scars..." He suddenly remembered them and wasn't sure what to do, in his haste to conceal them he reflexively turned, so I splashed him, "DON'T TURN AROUND!"  
He blushed hard, "RIGHT! Sorry!" he wasn't sure what to say, I could tell, "I...I better..." he struggled for something to say, anything to say at all, "I...love you."

If I hadn't been in water, I would have been floored, "WHAT?"

He nearly dropped his towel, "UM...WAIT! I didn't just...I don't mean...what the hell?" he was stumbling over his words even more than before, "THAT'S not was I was fuzz to say...I mean 'not what I meant to say'....I'm just flustered...it's not my native tongue so.... I should get out of here before I say something else at random. You know, like a declaration of war on pie or something."

As he strode quickly from the room, I sank in water a little, blushing more than I thought possible. Those words had come out of nowhere, and I wasn't sure how to react. What if they weren't just him getting the language wrong in his frantic state? If he did actually say something he did mean by accident...did I really mind? Was it a bad or good thing? I wasn't sure at all. Plus those scars...he'd been so desperate to get attention away from them. What was he hiding?

I stayed there in the water, I'm not sure how long. My mind reeled as to whether to run after him or pray for him to lock himself in his room for the night and make measures to avoid him for the rest of the year. Eventually, I stood up and walked over to the door. He had to be gone already, maybe I would go...my thoughts stopped as I realized something was keeping the door from sliding open.

"Bryan?" I could almost feel him on the other side.

"I'm sorry..."

Such pain...it was almost tangible.... Before I got wrapped up in my own problems I'd always been pretty good at reading people's emotions and understanding people, but never as strongly as right then. It was like he was crying out in agony, "Bry-kun..."

"I...didn't mean to come in on you. Miku-san recommended the hot springs and I guess she didn't know you were in here."

That Miku-san, I'd always thought pranks like this were more Mai-san's domain, "It's not your fault. No reason to get so upset. But Bry-kun."

"Yeah, the scars, right. I got those when I fell through a window...my uncle saw it happen and didn't do anything. He just left me there bleeding."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah, I'm not really on good terms with anyone in my family really. My parents...were worse than that, can we just leave it at that?"

I couldn't imagine..."I don't want to press the issue if it really bothers you that much, but if you want to talk about-"

"That confession of love," Bryan was suddenly teaser as he interrupted, switching topics from one thing that bothered him to another he seemed a little scared of, "...about that..."

"I understand, you di-"

Bryan broke in again, "I meant it."

I sat down hard.

"I meant it...I'm sorry it came out like this, but I'm in love with you...I'm sorry."

I wasn't sure what emotion to have, so I had several: disbelief, teary, and something resembling amusement (which was weird as I don't know where that one came from), "Why are you apologizing? That's..."

"I sorry because you'll never love me back now..." he punched the wall with frustration, "I can understand people too well...know them too fast...I get closer to people than they are to me and they never understand...they just...never live up to what I want of them. You've only known me a couple of months, you barely know me. I know everything about you."

I couldn't believe it, if it were anyone but him I wouldn't, "It's really like that? How can you stand it?"

"I can't. Do I sound like I'm standing it?" he was almost crying...just one little incident, a tap in the right spot, and he broke down to me, "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing!" I said with frustration...I leaned my head against the door, "You really do know me don't you. I think I always knew you could...those eyes...those piercing eyes of yours just seemed to look at every part of me..." I swallowed hard, "You really already love me...."

"Sorry...."

"I said stop that." I went through several emotions in that one moment of hesitation in my words, but one stuck and clung to my mind, so I acted, "Let me open the door..."

He was about to say no, I could tell, but he stood and I tried the door again. He was standing there, still in a towel. He looked small and vulnerable, something hard for a guy his size. Looking at him, it felt like someone needed me. I wasn't sure if what I was feeling was for him, or for the feeling of that need. I had to be honest, "I don't love you...." his expression didn't change, of course he knew that already. He face did change when I took a step forward and hugged him close, "I want to though...I can love you one day...I know that much."

He held me close, his face touching the top of my head, "I should say something..."

I smiled, "Yeah. But for some reason I don't think you need to.... I think I know you well enough.... Yes, I know what you want to say."

He kissed the top of my head, and for some reason I looked up at him, maybe it was my desire, maybe I knew what would make him happy, maybe both. Either way he kissed me and I let him. I enjoyed it. It was simple and pure. I could feel his complete and total affection for me. The emotion dripped on every fiber of my being like the moisture still on his body was dripping onto mine. When the kiss broke, neither of us did it. The stopping had just happened as naturally as the kiss had. It was like, somehow, our desires were one and the same.

I looked in his eyes, there was no pain anymore, because he wasn't alone anymore. Neither was I. In that moment...I understood. I finally knew what it felt like to really understand someone. In retrospect the concept had been foreign to me before. But right then I knew, and he knew.

Between us, words would never be necessary again.


	20. Chapter 18 For Realz

A/N: Welcome back folks! It's been a while! I finally managed to get rid of my writer's block for this fic. As I explained in my last upload I'd taken a hiatus from this story due to sorta burning out on it. I was going too fact for my own good I guess, pushing myself to upload as fast as humanly possible out of enthusiasm for the story and just burnt through all that enthusiasm. The bad news is, I'm moving in a week, and I don't know how much net access I'll have for a while. I'll try to upload as much as I can, when I can. For now, enjoy the new chapter. It's real this time! Better still, it's of those 'central to the theme' chapters that used "Layla" as the theme song (the regular classic rock version this time).

Chapter 18: The Big Problem (aka 'DIALOGUE!!!')

_Yukiko's Perspective_

I woke abruptly from my dream, my whole body feeling hot for some reason. Try as I might, I couldn't remember what I'd dreamed, but it had certainly made me feel flush. Speaking of flush, I threw the sheets off of myself and donned the outer robe of my pajamas, then headed off to the bathroom. It was late and the halls were dark, but I noticed one light was still on: Bryan's. Why was he still up? He should be resting for the last day of exams surely.

I went over and rapped on the door lightly, "Bry-kun?"

"Come in."

Opening the door, I spied stacks of envelopes on Bryan's desk, "You're still working on that?"

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep."

Strange, he didn't look especially tired, "Are you lying? It seems like you're used to this."

His expression didn't change, "You could tell huh? Well, like I said before I'm trying to save up some money."

"What for? You're always either working or training these days. You should relax. You'll pass out at this rate."

Bryan twitched suddenly, was he angry? I'd thought we were close, his actions over the ast few days had been confusing to say the least. He didn't respond, maybe he just didn't know what to say or maybe he just didn't want to talk to me.

"Is something bothering you?"

Nothing.

"We promised to talk to each other about stuff like this, but you're shutting me out. Did I do something wrong? Did I cross a line when I asked about your family?"

The was a pause before he looked over his shoulder at me, his expression an unreadable blend of sad and angry, "You didn't do anything wrong." Then he turned back to his work.

"Then why...?" I meant to say more, but the words caught in my throat and turn that into the full statement.

Bryan clenched his teeth and put his head in his hands, "I'm sorry, I'm just going through some stuff right now, I didn't want you to worry or getting involved."

"Is this about Karate club? Chie acted strangely when I asked her how it was going since you joined. She won't say anything specific about it."

"Yeah, let's just say I'm not too popular with the president." He turned and looked at me, "You know, it's kinda weird talking to you with you in the doorway like that. Are you coming in or not?"

Into Bryan's room? He might not think anything of it, but there were implications when one did that. I assumed the same wasn't true where he came from, but still... me in Bryan's room? "Um... maybe we could go fix something to drink in the kitchen?"

For the first time in days, Bryan chuckled, it was nice seeing a smile on his face again, "Don't tell me you're afraid to come in my room? It's not like I'm going to get really embarrassed and blurt out that I love you or anything like that."

"Still, you're a boy... it's kind of...."

He shook his head, "All right, to the kitchen then. Seriously though, I thought that shyness about being in a boy's room was just an anime stereotype."

"Some of those are true." I stated as he got to his feet and made his way to the door, I steeped out of his way, "I'll meet you there, I have to-"

"Bathroom?"

"Y-yeah." I'd met a few people from the United States, but their slight differences in social hangups was always a marvel to me.

When I got to the kitchen a few minutes later, I was musing over the fact that the towels in bathrooms never got your hands completely dry. That random topic of pondering was shoved quickly to the back of my mind when Bryan turned and set down a cup of coffee.

"Here. Decaf." he noted simply has he moved the various fixings for coffee to the table.

I sat down and started poured a little milk into mine. I pointed to his with my free hand, "Yours too?"  
"Of course. It'd be a waste of time making two different kinds." he heaped sugar into his coffee and poured some milk in when I was done. I found myself smiling that he liked his coffee exactly like little Nanako, the girl I sometimes babysitted. He didn't seem to notice my reaction, "If it's one thing that gets under my skin the most it's wasting time."

"Should I apologize then?" I wondered.

His response was swift and apologetic, "No! Of course not. You could never waste my time." He froze, "I mean... you can talk to me whenever you want, I don't mind it. If anything, the need for this discussion is my own fault."

"It's okay, I understand if you're going through some stuff. I just wish you would talk to me about it. Well, talk to someone at least. If it's one thing I've learned lately it's that trying to handle everything yourself is stupid."

He smiled, "Yeah, you're right." There was an awkward pause before he spoke again, "This one time though I'd rather not. I... have my reasons. This kind of thing is personal."

I was almost afraid to say what I was about to say, but my mouth insisted, "Like your family?"

Bryan clenched his mug hard, so hard I was afraid he might break it and cut himself, "Yes, like my family."

I frowned and looked deep into my coffee, "I don't want to force you to talk about anything you don't want to... but I have to admit it's a bit painful that you won't. I mean, we're supposed to." again my throat seized my next words and ended my sentence early."

His jaw clenched, "I just... I'd rather you not think ill of me. Just keep thinking of me as the confident understanding hero. It's what I want to be. Can't you let me do that?"

My brow reflexively furrowed with concern, "It can't be that bad. You are like that, I know you. You can't fake that."

He looked up with a pleading question in his eyes and words, "What if I am?"

I couldn't think of a reply for that.

Bryan tapped his index finger on the table, "What if I'm a terrible person? Isn't it okay for me to change? If I'm trying to not be that person anymore, why should I hurt myself by talking about it? Isn't it better to just have everyone know me just for who I want to be?"

"Bryan..." I tried to say something, but again I was at a loss for words. His finger tapping sped up, he was becoming more anxious as he thought about it.

Suddenly, he stopped and took a long sip from his coffee, "Don't you wonder why I'm such a good fighter? Do I seem like a fighter to you?"

"You've got the build, but no. You seem too nice to hurt anyone."

He looked at me with suddenly tired eyes, "I'm not. I learned to fight so I would be able to kill somebody. A specific person."

I was understandably surprised, "Who?"

"My father. Maybe my mother, I was young so I didn't really think that far ahead. All I wanted was to make him stop."

"Stop?"

"Beating me."

I looked down again, somewhat horrified at both the mention of abuse and that fact that it was so bad that he'd considered murder, "Oh.... I... didn't think-"

"I wasn't always big you know."

"I imagine not." was all I could say.

"You'd think school would be an escape, but then again if you think that you've never been small for your age and been smart enough to enter a year ahead."

"But you're older than people in our grade."

"Strange how being beat half to death twice a day until third grade can make you stop trying to excel."

"Dear god."

"I say until third grade because that's when my dad threw us out, and I got big enough to fight back."

"Bryan, I'm sorry... I-"

"Don't. You don't half to apologize okay?" he smiled, though those beautiful eyes of his seemed to still be full of pain, "Just don't ask me about my past again okay? I'll be open about anything else, but I'm not that person anymore. I escaped that world. I'm here now, I'm happy with you... guys." In retrospect, I was an idiot for not noticing the stutter. If I had not been clueless, maybe I would have realized he was starting to like me romantically.

I wanted to smile for him, but I couldn't, "I want you to be able to help you with stuff like that."

His smiled shifted too a more genuine one, his eyes brightening at my words, "You have, honestly. I mean it. Just you not minding the fact I used to be a violent person is plenty of comfort."

Suddenly felt a strange power growing inside me. Our bond had deepened and our 'social link' grown stronger. Again though, it seemed only his link sent warmth through my body and carried a power of its own. I could give him a smile with that new strength, "Like you said, that isn't you anymore."

He looked down, his smile fading and his eyes shifting to a more doubtful expression. When had I gotten so good at reading him? Sure, before I closed myself off to the world I'd always been pretty good at figuring out people, but this was different, more visceral.

His expression didn't last however as he looked up and forced a small smile, "Yeah, I'm not."

I frowned, somehow putting two and two together without trying. Was this how his mind worked? Was this how he seemed so understanding? "You're being bullied in the Karate club?"

His body didn't react, but his eyes revealed he was startled at me cutting to the heart of things, "Yeah. The president is throwing his weight around, that's all. It makes me angry."

"Understandably."

"Angry like I was back then."

"Oh."

He took another long drink, "It's fine though. I'll manage. I'll just have to beat him cleanly. In competition. If I channel that anger into something constructive, I can still be good old Bryan the Hero."

I smiled, "I'm glad."

Bryan returned my expression, "Yeah." he chuckled a little, "You know, I think I was avoiding the very thing I needed. Thanks for listening." He started to stand, pushing himself up up with his arms in a strange way, as if he was leaning forward then stopped himself. Again I was so clueless I didn't realized he almost absentmindedly kissed me, but caught himself.

He dumped what was left of his coffee and washed the cup, then looked back at me. "You done with yours?"

I looked down at my glass, then shook my head, "No. I think I'll sit here and finish it before going to bed."

Bryan suddenly seemed worried, "Anything you need to talk about?"

I smiled, "No. I just feel like sitting and sipping my drink for a bit, stew in everything but nothing in particular."

"Ah, I call that 'in a mood to dwell'."

"Ha-ha, yes I agree. That describes it perfectly."

He sat down again and we 'dwelled' until I finished my coffee. No more words were spoken, we didn't really have anything to say at the moment. We just kind of... existed together. At the time I was so glad that he had revealed so much about himself, it didn't even occur to me that he had again not answered my question about why he was so seriously saving money. Later, I would feel a bit tricked.

A week later, Bryan came home late wearing the thin hoodie he often wore, hood down. He was wearing sunglasses for some reason, which was odd since it wasn't particularly sunny. My mother was busy 'escorting' some slimy folks from a TV station out. Bryan saw the scene and came over to me.

"What's with the camera crew? I thought that had died down."

I nodded, "Not quite. Those three are from some show about the weird and unexplained."

He looked at the guy in the suit that was clearly the on-screen personality, "Hm. We have those in the states too, but not any with that slimy of an anchor. I take it from your mother's application of the 'politeness of doom' that she refused."

"Of course."

He nodded, then for some reason flinched a little, resisting the urge to grab his neck.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, of course not. I just pulled a muscle while training that's all."

I frowned at him, "Then why are you wearing sunglasses inside?"

He froze, and unfortunately my mother overheard that last line, "Bryan, have you been fighting?"

Bryan took a step back, "No, no ma'am. I wouldn't-"

"Take off those sunglasses then."

"But-" he realized here was no argument he could really make, and took them off. One of his eyes was starting to swell and was already turning colors.

"You have been fighting!"

Bryan pleaded his case, "It happened in karate club. I just didn't want anyone to worry about it. I was going to ice it and get the swelling down first."

I knew he was lying. Karate practice was the day before, and he hadn't gone. I got the feeling that he hadn't gone to the TV world either, if he had, he'd have healed himself. Bryan had been it a fight in this world, but I dare not reveal his deception, "You should be up front about these things, didn't you think someone might misunderstand?"

Mother looked at me, "Do you believe him, Yukiko?"

I nodded, lying for him, "Chie told me all about it. She accidentally kicked him when he was distracted. I was trying to get him to admit it."

She looked at me for a second, trying to make sure I was telling the truth then nodded, "He's lucky he doesn't have a concussion then. The girls has quite the legs."

I laughed, "Yes, that's true." If she only knew. With the strength of her persona powering her up, I'd seen her punt shadows clear through the ceiling of a castle.

Bryan bowed a little, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Amagi, if there's a next time I won't try to hide it. Hopefully there won't be a next time though."

"That's what I was going to say." she said simply, still angry but less so, "Yukiko, go help him put some ice on that."

Bryan seemed against that, probably because he knew I was going to force the truth out of him, "I can do it myself, there's no need to-"

I grabbed him, "I insist." I yanked him into the kitchen.

"Hey, ow, when did you get so strong?"

I thought he was kidding at the time, so I didn't reply, I just grabbed a zip-lock bag and some ice from the freezer, "Tell me the truth. You were in a fight. Karate practice was yesterday. Did that guy attack you or something?"

"Not exactly. Ow." he flinched as I pressed the ice to his eye, "There was some bikers causing a ruckus in the shopping district. A bleach blond guy went to take them on by himself when they outnumbered one ten to one. I even recognized some guys from the karate club there."

"From the karate club?"  
"Yeah. There's another anime cliché I thought wasn't real. Gangs recruiting martial arts club members as enforcers." uncomfortable and red faced for some reason, he tried to take the ice from me.

I wouldn't let him, "So you tried to help this blond person?"

"No, I didn't try, I succeeded."

"You look like hell."

He grinned, "You should see the other guys." he grabbed his neck, "Ow."

"Your neck is hurt, you should see a doctor."

"I'm fine, just a bruise. If it were bad enough to need a doctor I wouldn't be walking." he rubbed it, "I hope it doesn't bruise before I can get to the TV world to heal. Lying about a pipe-shaped bruise would be hard."

"You were hit with a pipe? In the neck?"

"It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the 2x4 when I was six. The pointy edges of those really sting."

I frowned.

"What?"

"You act so casually about it."

He smiled, "I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't have to be." I looked away from him, "You didn't tell me it was that bad. Other kids hit you with blunt objects?"

"Hey, it was the south. Southerners kick butt very thoroughly."

"Don't joke about it!"

He stood up and grabbed my shoulders gently, "Ssh! Your mom will overhear. And I was serious. That statement was perfectly true. Southern people are crazy."

I was about to say something, but Bryan spotted something behind be and moved past me, walking over to a small TV we kept in the kitchen that the volume had been turned down on. He turned it up. There was a TV report on, "Young men recklessly riding their motorcycles, disturbing the peace of a quiet rural town... Our special report took a turn for the violent when one of the apparent leaders attacked the camera crew!"

The crew's 'attacker' – a familiar blond person around our age – yelled at them, "The hell are you punks doing here?"

Bryan protested, "He wasn't the leader! He was the one that drove them off!"

The blond guy kept yelling, "This ain't a show! Get bent!"

"Kanji-kun?" I said, suddenly recognizing that face through the blur.

"You know him?"

I nodded, "Uh-huh, but we haven't talked to each other in a long time. His family runs a textile shop, and we've been a customer of theirs for many years. So I speak with Kanji-kun's mother from time to time."

Bryan nodded and looked back at the screen as the weather report came on, "I feel kinda sorry for the guy. Tied up in knots and angry, taking it out on others. At least he's pointed at bad guys, but he's gonna get hurt one day. Maybe I could talk to him or something."

"Maybe." I smiled. If Bryan's experience and understanding could help Kanji-kun, or anyone for that matter, then I was happy. Not only for them, but for Bry-kun, he seemed to enjoy it.

That, however, became secondary because according to the weather report, it was going to rain the next evening and clear through the night. There was little doubt that the Midnight Channel would be on again.

_Bryan's Perspective_

At Junes, Yosukes stood and started the meeting, "Ahem, we will now hold a meeting on our investigation of the serial kidnapping-slash-murder case here in Inaba."  
Chie gawked at at his long-winded presentation, "Dude, take a breath!"

Yukiko smiled playfully, without a hint of the worry of previous days, "So this place is our special headquarters now huh?  
Yosuke gave a thumbs up to the sentiment, "Yes! Exactly! Nicely put, Yukiko."

"I guess," I said, a little annoyed actually, "but should we really be deciding on clubhouses? What about what was on last night?"  
Chie nodded, "I saw it. I couldn't get a good view of the person's face, but it was a guy, wasn't it?"

**"**So that's how I looked on TV." Yukiko pondered, "I suppose that kills the theory about it being all female victims. What connection could that person have to the murders?"

Yosuke shrugged, "It could be an obvious link, but we still don't know who exactly we saw."

"In my case, the image on the Midnight Channel changed after I was kidnapped, right?" Yuki noted.

"Yeah, the screen got clear all of a sudden and the program looked like some low-budget TV show. Come to think of it, maybe Teddie was right. Maybe we were seeing the other Yukiko from that world.

"I think that's pretty well already established, Yosuke." I mused, "Whoever it is will probably be kidnapped by tomorrow, maybe the day after, but for now we have time."  
Yukiko agreed, "Uh-huh, I think that's safe to assume. If we can figure out who he is, can we prevent him from being taken?"

I nodded, "We'll certainly try."

Yosuke smiled, "And if all goes well, we might catch the killer in the bargain." frowning suddenly, he scratched his head in annoyance and sighed, "But to do that, we need to know who the latest Midnight Channel star is. I hate to say it, but I guess we'll have to wait another night and see what happens."

Yukiko looked over at me, noticing that I was deep in thought, "Did you think of something?"

"Not really, just something's nagging at me. I can't put my finger on it though." I lied. I had a solid theory, nothing really confirmed, but if I was right....

Chie broke into my thoughts, "Ahehem. Well, that means if my deductions are correct: Though the image was hard to make out, and we can't say for sure who it was, it was definitely a young male. His link if any to the previous murders is unknown. Since we cannot identidy the person at this time, we have no choice but to wait and see what happens."  
Yosuke sighed, "That's exactly what we just said!"

"Shut up!"

Yukiko tried to stop it, but the laughter came none the less, it was adorable, "Heehee, aha, ahahaha! You're so funny, Chie! Ahahaha, oh no! M-My funny bone!"  
"Not again..." Chie groaned, keeping an eye on me.

"S-Sorry, heeheehee!"

"This is how Yukiko really is, huh..." Yosuke shrugged, "Who'd have thought?"

Chie changed the subject, "By the way, about that guy we saw? I get the feeling I've seen him before.... Pretty recently, too."

"Oh, you too? Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing since last night..." he pondered over it, trying to think of who the figure reminded him of, but came up with nothing, "Well, let's check the TV again tonight and think about it more tomorrow."

Yukiko was still laughing, much to Chie's annoyance, "Grr, when are you gonna stop that, you crazy hyena?"  
The remark didn't help, "Ahahaha! That's a good one, Chie!"

I couldn't stop myself anymore, the strange animalistic urge to tickle her overcame me, I lunged, "Tickle attack."

"Huh? HA-HA-HA! Stop! Why do you keep-HA! HA! HA!"

Chie sighed and put her hand to her face, "What a pair of weirdos."

That night we watched the Midnight Channel. Yukiko decided not to make her parents jump to conclusions and we watched separately in our own rooms. I waited for the moment of truth, and when it came, the same person appeared, clearer than before, and my suspicions were confirmed.

My phone rang almost the instant he screen went blank, I put it on speakerphone because I wasn't in the mood to hold it up to my ear, "Did you see that?" It was Yosuke.

"Yeah, Kanji Tatsumi."

"Yeah, I think so too. I knew I saw him somewhere! It was on TV! He was on that special news report! He's one scary dude. He was even yelling to the camera 'Get bent!'" I frowned at that, but off course Yosuke couldn't see that, "Alright, so we finally have a lead. Let's all get together tomorrow, okay?" Suddenly he remembered something, "Oh, I almost forgot!It's kinda off-subject, but as long as you're on the line, mind if I ask something? It's something I've been meaning to ask for a while. So... what do you think about Yukiko and Chie? I mean, let's not mince words: Which one's your type?"

"Are you retarded?"

"Huh?"

"We're in the midst of a murder investigation here and you bring that up?"

I could almost feel Yosuke flinch on the other end, "I was just wondering, and trying to lightened things a bit. I didn't mean-"

I sighed, "Yeah... sorry. I didn't mean to snap... I can understand trying to keep things light and upbeat in between seriousness. I'm sorry."

"No problem, man, I get what you're saying." he paused a moment, "So are you going to fess up? I mean you live with Yukiko, but I see you hanging around with Chie all the time. Which one do you like?"

I thought about it, "Chie."

He froze, then stammered a little, "Really? Well, I mean sees a great girl and all, I can see why you'd-"

"Yosuke I was kidding. She's just my friend, I was just wanting to see how you'd react. I was not disappointed."

"Hang on now, I never said I liked her."

"Ha-ha-ha! You like her."

"NO I DON'T! Would you just drop that?" he reacted comically, "Anyway, see you tomorrow."

I was satisfied with my prank, but at the time I didn't know that Yukiko had been coming to see me to ask about what I saw, and caught the worst two lines of that out of context. I didn't know that she found herself upset that I liked Chie and not knowing why or that she had gone back to her room instead of knocking. She would be under the wrong impression and I wouldn't even know it for a while.

Elsewhere in Inaba, a certain detective prince arrived in the night at one of her grandfather's summer homes.

A/N: I meant to include more of Naoto, but the chapter kinda got away from me. Sorry. Lots of her next chapter I promise.


	21. Chapter 19

A/N: Cue the fanfare it's Naoto-chan time! I describe her voice when actively disguising it as hard to tell her gender, because it is in the Japanese version of the game. The English voice actor kinda flubbed that, even though she did do a decent job overall. Anyway, this chapter's theme song (for lack of a stable enough Internet connection to look for a better one) is "Eat You Alive" by Limp Bizkit.

Chapter 19: The Detective Prince (aka: "Banter Between Brains and the Internal Musings of an Uncertain Soul")

After school the next day, once most of the people had cleared out, we chatted about what we had seen on the Midnight Channel. Chie was the one to start, "The one who was on last night... It's THAT guy, right?

Yosuke nodded, "Kanji Tatsumi, huh? He definitely didn't look like the social type."

"Now there's an understatement. Isn't he really scary? did you see the news special the other day?"

"They got the wrong end of the stick in that not-so special report. I was there, he was trying to run the bikers off." was my retort, "You really shouldn't believe half of what the news says, they only care about ratings not getting the facts."

"You were there?" Yosuke was surprised of course.  
Yukiko interjected to protect me from having to explain, "I used to know him, but we haven't talked to each other in a long time. His mother runs a textile shop that's been around almost as long as the Amagi Inn. I speak with Kanji-kun's mother from time to time when I go to buy fabric. We might be able to talk to him in person if we go there now

Chie bough into Yukiko idea, nodding, "Sounds good. At the very least, we can ask if anything strange has come up lately. I wouldn't want to run into him in dark alley, but I'm pretty sure he won't fly off the handle in his family store."  
"Alright, then let's get going." Of course Yosuke didn't seem like he was looking forward to it, but he knew his duty.

Chie grinned playfully, "If things get rough, we're counting on you guys!"

I just nodded.  
When we got there, I was stricken by how old fashioned it was. The others were probably used to it, and the style might not have actually been all that uncommon in Japan, but the simple fact that the shop had a raised floor with the clerk kneeling, like you'd see in some old movies, was a little jarring. I admit to having a bit of a culture geek moment. Aside from the wizened looking old lady tending the store there was also a small boy in a blue cap, blue jacket, and blue patterned pants. I can't think think of the name of the pattern, but it was similar to checkered or plaid without being either.

Yukiko called out to the old lady, "Hello."

The old woman looked up and smiled, "Ah, Yuki-chan. It's so nice to see you."

The boy said in a slightly deep voice that seemed odd, "Well then, if you'll excuse me, Ma'am.  
"I'm sorry that I couldn't help more." the old woman smiled.

The blue kid bowed slightly, "It's all right; you've given me plenty to think about. Thank you."

He turned and spotted me and then froze. I could almost see the facts putting themselves together in her head and her face betrayed how startled she was for a mere fraction of a second, a second that repeated when she seemed to read the look of recognition on my face. I'm saying she suddenly because it was in fact my pen pal, "Naoto-chan." I said pointing at her for a reason unknown even to me.

My friends were rightly surprised, after all I was fairly new in the country, it was a small town, and they had never met her. Sure they should now anyone I do. Yukiko voiced the confusion, "You know him?"

"Yeah, he's my pen pal. I've been conversing with him for about a year or so now. Naoto Shirogane, the detective prince. You've never heard of him?" I dropped all the hints she would likely need that I new of her deception but wouldn't tell anyone.

Naoto became uncomfortable, realizing there was no hiding from me, "Bryan-san, could we talk outside... privately?"

"Sure why not?" I looked to my friends, "You guys can handle things right? I won't be gone long."

When I turned to step out, Naoto was already gone. I only briefly thought she'd made a run for it, but she was outside waiting, "So, I presume you looked me up or heard of me in some fashion? My face is certainly accessible through various sources."

I chuckled, "That would've been cheating now wouldn't it? Kinda unfair knowing what you look like before you know my face."

"Ah... well if that's true my expression must have betrayed me. There's no other information I can detect that you could have used."

I nodded, "Yeah. You're the only one in Japan whose face I don't know that should be shocked like that at seeing me. I assumed you'd figure out it was me instantly, given the fact of how few Americans are around this area."

"True." there was a pause, "Thanks for keeping m secret... I guess."

I put my elbow on her head lounging. With the difference in our heights it wasn't all that uncomfortable, "What kind of person do you take me for? I'm not a-"

She stepped away, swatting my hand, her face was red with anger, "Stop that!"'

By chance I had grabbed her hat. The redness of her face and the hat not concealing the feminine curve of her head made me realize she was actually pretty as long as I ignored the boyish clothes. No not pretty, damn sexy would be a pretty description. The more I let my mind think of her as a girl and my thinking patterns wove into that what I knew of her personality, I started finding her slender, but pouty lips quite inviting.

"What are you looking at?"

I quickly handed her back her hat, and looked away. I felt dirty for thinking sexual thoughts someone besides Yukiko. Technically it was only physically, but since my perception of emotion affected how I saw people... would that make a physical attraction an emotional betrayal as well? I quickly pushed the debate from my mind, "Sorry. The arm thing was just a joke. I didn't mean to take your hat."

"I don't appreciate the gawking either."

"Is it my fault you're cute when you're angry?" I admitted bluntly, "I suppose since the arm thing didn't sell I shouldn't give in to this strange urge to tickle you huh?"

Naoto looked at me with annoyance for moment and rolled her eyes, "As usual I can never tell if you are a genius or a complete ignoramus."

"I'm nothing if not a man of parallels." I quipped, stealing a line from a overly long Yu-Gi-Oh! GX fan fic I'd read once. (A/N: Sudden shameless plug in perfect context FTW)

She spent several moments adjusting her hat by the reflection in the shop mirror, whether this was a part of feminine vanity or paranoia about looking perfectly male was a deduction I could not make. Naoto was pretty good at hiding within herself, much like Yukiko had been, and it was only the fact that I knew her well that I was able to read her at all. It made me sad, as I figured that people that were the most locked away were the most alone.

Naoto again snapped me from m thoughts, "What are you doing here anyway? I'd think you were helping the Amagi girl do the shopping, but you brought two friends. Seems strange."

I laughed, "What reason do you have to suspect anything, other than that? Is it too much of a stretch to imagine two friends came to help?"

"For fabric, yes, especially after that reaction, yes." she cut right through my words, "Plus the fact that the Amagi girl vanished lately, with you a suspect in recent crimes until not long ago."

"With the guy who lives here happening to fit the killer's mode of operations?"

"So you are poking your nose into it."

I chuckled, "Naoto, a five year old with severe brain damage could come up with that theory."

"Five years old with brain damage don't live with a girl who went missing, matched the pattern, and didn't die."

"She was lost in the woods."

Naoto stepped towards me, "You're lying, I can tell. You would have no means of guessing the pattern if you knew that were the truth, you did, so therefore it must be a lie. She was kidnapped by the killer. Why you would conceal this elides me, but I'll get it out of you."

"Should I just tell you out right or do you want to play around with words some more? Because I've got some more wordplay we can work through if you like."

"This isn't a game."

"You seem to enjoy it well enough. Or maybe you just enjoy talking to me."

Naoto turned angrily with a sound that sounded like a mix of a growl and a light sigh, "You're evading the point."

"I was just teasing. Though the body language you responded with was interesting. You kinda moved a bit different than your earlier annoyance, a bit... tingly is really the only word I have for it."

"How does one move in a 'tingly' way?"

I shrugged, "Don't ask me, you're the one that did it."

"Anyway, you're deflecting the matter at hand again." Naoto, now in full-on irritated mode, confronted me, pointing a finger into my chest, "What's your involvement with this case? You've clearly made deductions fr ahead of the police, beyond me as well, as you seem to have saved one victim from the very clutches of the killer."

"You sound like a detective novel, but regardless, it doesn't work that way."

She glared, "How does it work exactly, Bryan?"

I started my explanation, obligatory meaningless hand gestures and all, "How can I put this...? Imagine a person spotting his victim and deciding to kill them, but instead this killer merely take them to some place and leaves them there, just letting them die there. Technically, I could find a victim and not know who the killer is."

"Are you talking about starvation? That would take weeks, and there were no signs of animal attack." I could tell Naoto was trying to be on my side with this, but I needed to be open with her, she wasn't going to be deceived, at least not easily.

"Listen. This is kind of complicated. The truth would only sound like a lie, but I can give you proof if you're willing to trust me."

She looked at me, analyzing every facet of my being for any sign of falsehood, not letting our friendship cloud her judgment before giving it due consideration, "What kind of proof?"

"I can show you what I'm talking about, I can take you to this place the killer takes them that would cause them to die fast enough and without leaving marks. If you see it, you'll understand why I'm not going to the police with this."

Naoto was skeptical, I could see it in her eyes. She studied me carefully, looking for any indication that I was lying, finding none. Then she aloud or relationship affect her carefully measured perception of the situation and settled on a course of action, "Alright, I trust you but I am no fool easily deceived. I'll be keeping an eye on you. Take me-"

"First we have to see to Kanji, I have even more reason to think he's the next victim than you do." I said looking around for any sign of the blond teenager coming home. Clearly he wasn't home or Naoto would have been talking to him when we arrived.

"What reason is that?"

"In time Naoto, trust me. Depending on how things go with Kanji it might even be this evening or tomorrow."

"Do you mean his kidnapping or your taking me there? Be more specific."

"That also depends on how things go. If we can't protect him then I'll take you there on a rescue mission." I said simply, face perfectly straight.

I looked over to Naoto, who was wracking her brain trying to figure out where the place could be. Of course she'd never figure it out. There was no location she could know about (at least not in Japan) that could kill in a week, leave no signs of what caused the death, and the police could not be involved in. Such a place defied reason and reason was what the detective 'prince' had built her entire life around.

I sighed, "I'm going to check on the others, tell me if Kanji shows up okay?"

Naoto eyed me suspiciously.

"Oh come on, we're not going to plot to take you somewhere and kill you or brainwash you into joining a cult." I chuckled.

"Sadly, those two things seem entirely feasible compared to what you want me to believe."

"Well, we're hardly the local branch of Strega, Naoto." I quipped, referencing a cult that had been popular a few years back in another part of Japan that had had a pretty massive Internet foothold.

"I'd like to believe that of course." she replied grimly.

I walked back into the store alone, feeling a little sad that I wasn't around Naoto anymore, and found my three friends trying to think of any connection between Kanji and the other victims. I felt strangely bad when I saw Yukiko look over at me with the small smile that had become her default expression these days. Was I cheating on her emotionally? Did it even count it we weren't together? Even then could it be considered betraying the feelings I claimed to be developing for her or was it perfectly fine to be attracted to other people? There's nothing wrong with enjoying being around people you had things in common with right? It's not like I loved Naoto or anything. I'd never make a move an the attraction either. Though I did feel dirty. I'd had a primal urge to tickle someone other than Yukiko, and for some reason that felt like some great betrayal to me, oddly bothering me more than the simple attraction. Yukiko should be the only one I want to tickle. The tickle was kind of a strange act of intimacy between us, though I had not realized it until then. Wanting to do that with someone else... well, it almost seemed worse than lusting after someone. Not that I was... alright, some small of me was in fact lusting after Naoto and it would only get worse over time... but.... I don't know. Tell me, am I a bad person for that? I can't tell.

In my musings my eye happened to fall on something familiar a red scarf, after thinking about it I remembered, "That scarf, I saw it in the other world where the announcer was being held."

The old lady couldn't hear me but apparently caught the word 'announcer' at least, "Are you an acquaintance of Ms. Yamano?"

"You could say that. Um... Did Ms. Yamano happen to have a scarf like this?"

"Yes, it was a special order. She actually ordered a pair, but in the end, she said she only wanted the woman's scarf. It left us with no choice but to sell this one separately."

Huh, all that time I'd assumed it was a gift from him, but it turns out she was buying him something but never saw him again."

"How much is it?" she told me the price and I paid it.

Yukiko was confused when I came back over, "Why'd you buy that?"

"I'm going to make sure it gets where it belongs eventually. I feel like I should."

She looked at me with sympathy, remembering I'd been on the case longer than anyone, had seen the announcer die and failed to save her. She would have probably said something if not for Chie.

"Oh man... There IS a connection to the first case! What are we gonna do?"

Yosuke was a bit shocked by the discovery, "H-How should I know?"  
A dorrbell rang and a voice called out from the back door, "Hello? Delivery here for the Tatsumis."

The old lady looked briefly over her shoulder, "Oh, I'll be right there." then turned back to us, "I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me."

Chie gave the kindly old woman a smile, "Oh, it's okay. We should get going."

"I'll come again, Ma'am." I noted Yukiko's expression as she addressed the woman. It was a fond expression, somewhat like you would give a beloved grandmother.

It was a fondness the lady seemed to return, "Is that so? Well, then please say hello to your mother for me."

As the old lady went to the back door, Yosuke turned to us and scratched his chin in that, "It really is connected to the first case after all. But it's just a scarf. Would the killer target someone just because of that? Dammit, what's going on?" his brow furrowed in frustration, "C'mon, let's talk outside."

I nodded, "Yeah, I kinda wanted to talk to you guys about someone."

We stepped out to see Naoto chatting with Kanji, he seemed uncomfortable, "T-Tomorrow's fine with me."

Naoto seemed clueless as to the nature of his awkwardness, "Are you going to be in school tomorrow? We could meet after if that would be more convenient."

" S-School? 'Course I'm going to school..." he looked over and spotted us, "H-hey. What are you pricks looking at? This isn't-" then he recognized me, "Hey, you're that nut from the other day that poked his nose in my business!"

Naoto seemed both confused at his knowing me and intrigued at the prospect of gathering information, so she remained a quiet observer.

I closed the distance a little, making sure to not seem aggressive, "I wouldn't call myself a nut... And I seem to recall a certain bleach blond guy being outnumbered a dozen to one."

Kanji snorted, "Huh! I had it under control, those punks can't fight for..." he looked at Naoto out of the corner of his eye, "Those punks can't fight at all. You fought 'em too, you know. So you can just stay out of my business from now on."

"Hey, I was trying to help you, ya know."

"Yeah, and what are you doin' here now? Helping out at the store? Nobody who fights like that is a helpful sort."

My friends, including Naoto, eyed me with confusion. I didn't need any powers to tell they were wondering what he'd seen of me that they hadn't. It made me uncomfortable. In that fight I'd gone berserk, I didn't want them to know how brutal I could be. "You fight like me."

"I do not."

"You will eventually. I used to be an angry punk too. Eventually my anger got so destructive I had to change. I'm better now, except when people hit me in the neck with pipes I mean. I just wanted to save you the trouble."

Kanji rolled his eyes, "Who are you? The school counselor or something? Get out of my way!" he pushed passed me and walked into the store without the others daring to stop him.

Yosuke sighed, "That could have gone better."

I shrugged, "Well at least Naoto here still has a chance to talk to him about anything weird going on since he doesn't know I know him." then speaking to Naoto without looking at her, "I assume that's the goal of the meeting you set up?"

"Yes." she replied catching on and following my lead in having our body language seem like we weren't associated. She pulled out a notebook and took few steps away, acting as if we weren't important.

I started back to my friends and acted like I was speaking only to them. "Guy's don't look in Naoto's direction, but the master detective has us figured out it seems. Though I can't say it was really all that difficult to draw the conclusion we we were investigating the murders."

Yosuke and the others went slightly wide-eyed at the announcement, Yosuke being the one to give the reaction voice, "Really? What do we do about it then?"

Chie looked at him and shrugged, then realized her question was better directed at me, "Do we really have a choice? How much does he know?"

"He figured out enough. I know him guys, Naoto can be trusted. I'm not sure it'll be all that safe for he-im" (almost slipped, oops) "to go into that world, but I want to do want I did with Yosuke."

The person in question spoke up, eying Naoto, "Taking him there and letting him join our little rescue team?"

"I already promised him. I didn't have much choice."

He sighed, "I don't like you making decisions like that all by yourself again, but I trust you did what you thought was best."

Naoto spoke up at this point, "So, when are you taking me to this dangerous place of yours?"

"I'd hardly call it mine." I replied.

"Regardless."

"Right now protecting Kanji takes priority. Taking you there would be detrimental to that as it would take time we probably don't have."

Naoto seemed to agree, "I can't get any police to watch him, I don't have enough to go on for that. What do you propose?"

"We'll have to watch him ourselves."

"But I can't be one hundred percent sure that you people aren't the killers."

I sighed, "Naoto, we don't have much time left that we can stand out here without our cover being blown so I'm just going to play it straight with you. Come to the Amagi Inn late tonight, around midnight, and I'll give you some proof that we can be trusted. Until then, we have to rely on previous patterns to predict the time of the strike. Chie, you and I are the most physically able here, no offense Yosuke,"

"None taken, she knows karate after all."

I nodded, continuing my sentence, "so we'll wander the street until about night fall. From what I've surmised, so far none of the kidnappings have happened at night. Sound good?"

The three nodded, but Yukiko seemed uncomfortable for some reason. I was busy so I shrugged it off.

Naoto added, "And I'll be keeping an eye on the two of you as well."

Next Chapter: Another Trial

A/N: Bad Bryan! Having naughty thoughts about another woman! Bad boy! No biscuit!

Bryan: Crap. I really, really wanted that biscuit.

Me: 0.0?

Bryan: Anyway, if you think ill of me, clearly you forget that you're gonna have her be in my room next chapter. You're an enabler!

Me: Am not!

Bryan (points accusingly): You are _so_ an enabler! You even had that vulgar song about sexual lust as the chapter them song. Did you even listen to that song? I never said I wanted to sniff her undies!

Me: Hey, right now my connection is iffy. The readers are lucky I was even able to get this chapter uploaded at all. I couldn't look around for a better one.

Bryan: So you claim sir!

Me: Wanna fight about it?

Bryan: I'm a pacifist, but the answer is still yes. You have no chance! I'm a Gary Stu!

Me (selects and deletes the text containing Bryan's attacks and counters, resulting in him standing there helpless as he is beaten): That'll learn ya.

Bryan: Point taken.


End file.
